Thirteen Valencia High School seniors were recently celebrated for committing their academic and athletic futures to their respective colleges or universities.
One of those was Nick Seymour, who helped the Vikings football team to the Foothill League title for the second straight season. He’s set to attend Montana State University starting in the fall, after his older brother, Ben, played for the Bobcats in 2022 and 2023 as a defensive end.
“I’m super excited and blessed to be given this opportunity to play at the next level,” Seymour said. “They’re really the only school that was talking with me. I was talking with them all throughout high school, and then they finally gave me the opportunity to play there.”
A wide receiver, Seymour racked up 1,093 yards on 52 receptions in 2024, nine of those for touchdowns.
Chris Makhanian is set to play for the Arizona State University ice hockey team. He played for both the West Ranch Wildcats at the high school level and the Santa Clarita Flyers travel hockey club.
In 2024, he scored seven goals and dished out three assists in 18 games for the Wildcats.
With hockey having somewhat of a different schedule and format to most high school sports, Makhanian thanked his parents for putting in the same time and effort that he did to make sure he could have the opportunity to keep playing in college.
“None of that could have been done without them, and just the effort and commitment I put in myself to achieve this is really cool,” Makhanian said. “So, I’m really grateful and thankful for all that’s been happening … You just gotta grind out the time on the ice. It’s not other sports where you have an open field; you have to actually take ice times. So, being able to drive out to the rink every day and just having to grind out all that work, I feel it really does make a difference.”
Scarlett Carlson has signed for Loyola Marymount University to play for the Lions’ softball team.
She played for Saugus before transferring to Valencia for her senior campaign, and while dealing with a shoulder injury throughout the season, managed to record a .375 batting average with a double, a home run, seven runs scored and eight RBIs.
“It’s exciting, and it’s definitely a spotlight that I feel all my classmates deserve,” Carlson said of having everyone being celebrated all at once.
Also signing their national letters of intent were (player, sport, school):
- Brooke Mirkovich, dance, University of Utah.
- Megan Xiong, dance, Washington State University.
- Henry Egami, wrestling, Cal Poly, Humboldt.
- Maxime Jolley, mens’ soccer, Cal State University, Maritime.
- Samantha Cazares, swim, Seattle University.
- Victoria Lawrence, swim, California Lutheran University.
- Alexander Hohler, mens’ lacrosse, College of Idaho.
- Isabella Oxenham, womens’ lacrosse, Muskingum University.
- Gianna PruDe, womens’ lacrosse, Marian University.
- Peyton Richardson, womens’ lacrosse, Cal Lutheran.
