




Oakland Tech basketball player Jhai Johnson is the Bay Area News Group’s girls high school athlete of the week and Wilcox football player Elijah Vallejo is the boys athlete of the week for Dec. 2-7.
In online voting that ended at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Johnson finished with 46.17% of the vote. Willow Glen basketball’s Natalia Valerio took second with 26.34% of votes cast.
In the boys poll, Vallejo finished with 42.91% of the vote. Menlo School basketball player Evan Arcilla placed second, and Liberty basketball player Dante Vigil took third.
Johnson, a junior, scored 28 points and added eight rebounds in a win over North Community High School in Minnesota.
Vallejo rushed for 122 yards on 20 carries, but Wilcox fell to Twelve Bridges 28-27 in the CIF NorCal Division 2-A title game. Wilcox finished the season 11-3.
To nominate an athlete for next week’s poll, email highschools@bayareanewsgroup.com by Monday at 11 a.m. Please include stats and team results.
Votes by email do not count. Only votes submitted through the online poll on the Mercury News and East Bay Times websites will count.
Winners are announced each Friday on the Mercury News and East Bay Times websites and in the print edition of the Mercury News and EB Times sports sections.