El Camino Talents Accept Don MacKenzie Scholarship Awards
El Camino College student-athletes Mia Park and Nicholas Baltazar are the South Coast Conference 2024 Don MacKenzie Scholarship Award winners.
The SCC will award the two Warriors $1,000 each.
The MacKenzie Scholarships annually go to student-athletes who exhibit strong academics and high performance on the field of play. In several cases, the student-athletes chosen are ones who also have overcome obstacles and involve themselves in community service. The awards honor the memory of MacKenzie, the long-time SCC commissioner from 1979 until his passing in 2004.
Park is one of the most accomplished women's swimmers in state history. She maintained a 4.0 GPA, graduating in Spring of this year with a AS degree in pre-nursing and AA degrees in general studies: biological and physical sciences and in kinesiology.
Now at NCAA Division I UC San Diego to compete on the swim team and continue her education, Park's list of performance achievements at El Camino deserve its own list:
- Broke seven conference meet records
- Two-time SCC Swimmer of the Year
- Won six 3c2A state gold medals
- Two-time State Swimmer of the Year
- Women's Peformance of the '24 State Meet---Park set a new state record of 17 minutes, 4.63 seconds in the 1,650-yard freestyle
Baltazar holds the distinction of being the first player to ever be named United Soccer Coaches All-American player and Scholar-Athlete All-American in the same year.
He helped the ECC men's soccer team win the 3C2A state championship last year and was named SCC Defender of the Year as a sophomore. The 2-time, All-SCC player was on a Warriors team that finished 24-1 and was claimed a national championship.
Baltazar held a 3.87 GPA as a business adminstration major and earned a playing scholarship to D1 California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
He volunteered at his local church and was promoted to be an official catchist teacher.
Release by Robert Lewis, SCC SID