The Western Athletic Conference Athletic Excellence banner will hang inside Phil de la Porte Gymnasium during the 2017-18 school year.

Ceres High was presented the 2016-17 perpetual award for the third time in five years at the WAC luncheon on May 23 at the Turlock Country Club.

The WAC Athletic Excellence Award recognizes a school's entire athletic program.

Teams from the spring, winter and fall seasons earn points based on where they finish in the conference standings.

Ceres High beat out Los Banos, Livingston, Patterson, Central Valley and Pacheco.

"Everybody in our league will come to our gym next year and see that banner," Nunes said. "It's a big honor. It means our varsity sports did better than everybody else's varsity sports. Every single one of our athletes contributed. They're performing at high levels."

Ceres High won the WAC Excellence Award outright for the first time in 2015.

Ceres High and Los Banos shared the honor in 2012-13.

"It was between us and Los Banos this year," Nunes said. "We beat them by three points. The spring is what carried us. Every single team made playoffs."

Ceres High's softball, boys golf and boys tennis teams claimed WAC titles during the springtime.

Baseball, boys volleyball, boys and girls track and field, and boys and girls swimming all finished in second place.

Ceres High's wrestling team captured the WAC championship this past winter.

Boys basketball and girls soccer both took second.

Girls wrestling, Girls basketball and boys soccer placed third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

Girls volleyball, girls golf and girls water polo had the second-best teams in the WAC in the fall.

Boys water polo, boys cross country, girls cross country and girls tennis were third.

Football was fourth.

Standout senior athletes Aiden Moore (wrestling and football) and Callie Nunes (softball) served as representatives for Ceres High at the WAC luncheon.

They were presented the coveted banner.

"It's an awesome award," Aiden said. "A lot of people don't realize we're dominant in a lot of sports. Ceres High is a force to be reckoned with."

"To be able to be one of the students to accept it on behalf of the school was an honor and neat experience," Callie added. "It's nice to be recognized for the hard work we've put in. It's a really cool thing."