LAKE COUNTY >> Ashlyn Welton helped deliver a second straight league title to Middletown during the 2015-16 basketball season. Along the way, just for good measure, she became the school’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder.
The senior center is the most valuable player on the 2016 edition of the All-Lake County girls’ basketball team as selected by the Lake County Record-Bee.
Welton, who is also the Record-Bee’s reigning female Athlete of the Year based on her accomplishments during the 2014-15 sports year, helped lead the Mustangs to a school-record 23-win season and a North Central League I co-championship shared with Kelseyville. Last season the Mustangs went 20-7, then a school record for wins in a single season by a Middletown girls’ team, and an undisputed league crown.
During the recently completed 2015-16 campaign, Welton was almost an automatic double-double performer for the Mustangs, averaging in double digits in scoring and rebounding most games. She finished the season with a 16.2 scoring average, second best in the county behind Upper Lake junior guard Natalie Karlsson (20.4). Welton was the first of five Lake County players to reach the 1,000-point plateau this past season and she went on to finish her career with a school-record total of 1,314. Her career rebound total was 1,004.
Welton played a handful of games with the Middletown varsity at the tail end of her freshman season before bursting onto the scene as a sophomore during the 2013-14 campaign. Her individual success led to team success for the Mustangs, who went from 16 wins in 2012-13 to 19 in 2013-14, 20 in 2014-15 and 23 this past season.
Overseeing the Mustangs’ success was third-year varsity coach Anthony Bazzano, who is the All-Lake County Coach of the Year. Bazzano is 62-22 (.738) lifetime at Middletown, including 36-6 (.857) in league play. Both Middletown and Kelseyville won first-round games in the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs this season, snapping a long drought by county teams in the postseason, especially in Division IV.
Joining Welton on the first team is teammate Makenzi Smith, a junior guard who averaged 9.1 points a game overall but was a force for the Mustangs during their run to another league title; Kelseyville junior Riley Goff, who averaged 13.0 points a game, and her teammate, freshman guard Payton Conrad (10.3), who scored 300 points in her first high school season; Clear Lake senior guard Taylor Helms, who scored her 1,000th career point during the season and averaged 15.8 a game, third behind Karlsson and Welton in the county; and the aforementioned Karlsson, whose 550 points led all Lake County players – girls and boys – during 2015-16. She still has another full season to add to her 1,109 career points.
Second-team selections include a pair of Lower Lake sophomores in Aleia Milano (13.0) and Samantha Caires (11.9); Kelseyville’s Heidy Cano (8.1), the only senior on a Knights roster that returns nearly intact next season; Kelseyville junior teammate Alma Perez (13.7), who was the Knights’ leading scorer on the season; and Middletown junior Abby Aden (8.3) and senior teammate Kaleigh Alves (5.0), both important pieces in the Mustangs’ starting lineup.
