Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Ferndale Wildcats celebrate their NCS championship this week.

By Ray Hamill — One high school senior saved her best for last with one of her most dominating performances ever in her final high school sports appearance.

And that makes her this week’s Humboldt Sports Athlete of the Week.

St. Bernard’s Madelyn Shanahan has been one of the top H-DNL athletes in several sports for the last few years and that continued to be the case this week.

During her time competing for the Crusaders, Shanahan has dominated on the soccer fields and the volleyball courts, where she has won Little 4 MVPs in both sports.

She also is a two-time co-MVP on the basketball court, in addition to an all-state selection this past winter.

But she has thrived just as much in track and field and capped an outstanding career this week with a big performance at the CIF state meet in Clovis.

Shanahan qualified for the prestigious meet after finishing second in the girls discus at last weekend’s North Coast Section Meet of Champions.

And she turned in the best performance of her young career at the state championships, smashing her previous best-ever mark by more than 10 feet on her way to placing 14th.

Not a bad way to close out.

But she wasn’t the only senior to impress in local sports this week.

A talented group of five seniors helped set the tone for the Ferndale baseball team on the way to winning an NCS championship on Wednesday.

And that makes the Wildcats our team of the week.

The Ferndale boys, who won a first Little 4 conference championship in 19 years earlier this month, carried that momentum into the NCS playoffs and would add their first section title in seven years.

For many of the players, this was their second NCS winners medal of the year, having also led the Cats to an NCS crown in football during the fall.

Our second athlete of the week, meanwhile, goes to Tsinte Steinruck, who enjoyed a career moment this week when she lifted the Del Norte softball team to a thrilling win over Salesian in their NCS semifinal.

With her team trailing by a run and down to their final out, Steinruck blasted a two-run home run to seal the come-from-behind win and send the Warriors on to the weekend championship game.

All in all, it was a night the junior standout won’t easily forget.

ATHLETES OF THE WEEK 

Madelyn Shanahan

St. Bernard’s Track and Field, Senior

There’s nothing like knowing you truly gave it your all on one of the biggest stages of your career.

Shanahan has left a lasting legacy at St. Bernard’s, including leading the team to a first-ever state championship in basketball earlier this year, and she capped a big year with a huge performance at the state meet on Friday.

The standout senior barely missed out on qualifying for Saturday’s final by just two spots in the discus after a PR throw of 132’ 2”, smashing her previous best mark of 121’ 9”.

For more on her big week, see Shanahan sets new PR, leads H-DNL charge at state meet …

Tsinte Steinruck

Del Norte Softball, Junior

Steinruck provided Del Norte sports with one of the school’s most thrilling moments ever with her game-winning game home run on Wednesday night.

The shot heard round the county gave her team a dramatic playoff victory and kept their season going, setting up a weekend championship showdown at St. Helena.

While the Warriors would lose that final, Wednesday’s game will remembered as one of the moments of the year in H-DNL sports.

For more on her big week, see Clutch Steinruck home run lifts Warriors to walk-off NCS win …

TEAM OF THE WEEK

Ferndale Baseball

The Wildcats have been one of the stories of the spring sports season since day one and they continued to be so this week.

With just two losses all year, the Ferndale boys secured the program’s fifth all-time NCS crown with a dominating 17-5 win over Point Arena in Wednesday’s Division-6 championship game.

Head coach Justin Andersen, who has now led the Cats to three section crowns, deserves a ton of credit for what his team achieved, as do several off the players.

The best thing about this year’s Ferndale team is there really is no one or two players who stood out above all others and it truly was a team effort all season long.

They have plenty of depth at pitching, have played sound defense all year and can hit the ball one through nine on any given day.

For more on their big week, see Motivated Wildcats take care of unfinished business with NCS win …