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Bruin Halftime Crowns Winter Homecoming Queen And King
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Riverbank Homecoming Queen Alexa Gutierrez, left, and King Christian Aguiniga take time out for a semi-formal photo following their coronation during halftime of the varsity boys basketball game between Escalon and Riverbank. The Friday, Jan. 25 game, capped a week of spirit activities on the Riverbank High School campus. Ric McGinnis/The News

The official coronation of the 2019 Winter Homecoming Queen and King highlighted halftime of the Friday night, Jan. 25 varsity boys basketball game at Riverbank High School. Candidates also took part in a rally earlier in the day on Friday, with plenty of fun and games for the student body at RHS. (See story, photos, Page A3.)

From a field of five candidates each, Alexa Gutierrez was crowned Queen on Friday night, presented with a sash and flowers while Christian Aguiniga received the King’s crown and sash.

Other candidates in the running for Queen honors were Michel Valenzuela, Tasha Woods, Maddison Schroeder, and Jasmin Reyes Rocha. The King nominees list included Daniel Sarabia, Izaiah Marquez, Robert Cunha, and Brenden Hetzler.

All candidates were selected from the RHS senior class, with voting for the king and queen individually.

On the queen side, Valenzuela and Gutierrez both play varsity girls basketball, while King hopefuls Cunha and Sarabia both play varsity basketball for the Bruins and remained on the court at halftime of the Friday night game for the Homecoming festivities.

The coronation wrapped up the Homecoming Week of activities, built around a Wizard of Oz theme this year for the winter event.

A surprise announcement came just as the halftime activities were ending, before play resumed, when visiting RHS alumni Allen Brown and Nick Allen were called to the center court and introduced to the crowd.

The pair had just completed boot camp the week before at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, and will be on their way soon to advanced training.

While at RHS, Brown had played receiver on the Bruin football team while Allen played first base on the baseball team.