Track and Field: Locals prepare for finals

Tony Altobelli

IRVINE - There will be plenty of blue, green and red represented in

Friday’s Pacific Coast League track and field finals with Corona del Mar,

Costa Mesa and Estancia high schools judging from Tuesday’s

preliminaries.

“It’s going be a tight meet between us, Costa Mesa and Laguna Beach on

the boys side,” CdM Coach Bill Sumner said. “But on the girls side, we

should be the team to beat. We’ve got a very strong girls team with a lot

of good runners in almost every event. It should be fun.”

Senior standout Liz Morse qualified first in the 200-meter run, as well

as the 400 and 800, much to the dismay, actually, of her coach.

“This is a hard day for Liz,” Sumner explained. “I want this to be a

workout in preparation for Friday. But, as soon as she puts her shoes on,

she wants to beat everyone.”

A fun example of this came in the 400 where Morse, hearing, then seeing

Costa Mesa freshman Sharon Day right next to her, turned on the jets for

a close win.

“We all thought it was pretty funny seeing Sharon battling Liz like

that,” Mesa Coach John Carney said. “Liz dominated the race, but it was

nice to see Sharon right up there. There’s the future of that race at the

high school level for the next few years.”

For the Mustangs, Julie Kroening and Greg Stewart qualified for two

individual events. Kroening will compete in the 100 low hurdles and 300

intermediate hurdles, while Stewart will race in the 100 and 200.

Stewart, a little miffed that the 100 wasn’t raced on Tuesday due to only

eight participants signing up, vented in the 200, taking first with a

22.33, over a second and a half better than the rest of the pack.

“It’s really up to him to determine his success,” Carney said. “He can

either work hard and do really well, or he can pack up and go on

vacation. He can go as far as he wants to go.”

Josh Strickland also qualified for two events, taking fourth in the 200

and third in the 400.

Other Mustangs to advance include Luis Segeviano and Rami Ghebrekidus in

the boys 800, Billy Jordan in the boys 300 IH, Katie Quinlan in the girls

1,600 and Ashley Schaefer in the girls 400.

For Estancia, the Geider twins, Jasmine and Hanni, will each race in the

100 and 200 finals on Friday. Jasmine and Hanni finished 1-2 in the 100,

while Hanni was fourth and Jasmine seventh in the 200.

“They each ran really well today,” Eagles Coach Charlie Appell said.

“They’re both only sophomores so they will be a force around the league

for quite a while.”

Liz Huipe put in a strong effort and qualified third in the 1,600 with a

5:20.99. “In the distance races, you can’t really slough off too much,”

Eagles coach Joan Carlisle said. “Liz was going all out in order to

qualify. There’s some pretty strong runners in that event around here.”

Other Eagles to qualify for Friday include Maria Arroyo in the 1,600

(5:59.85), Erica Jennings in the 300 intermediate hurdles (49.72) and

Luis Segeviano in the 800 (2:02.57)

It’s a Sea King smorgasbord in the girls 800 and 1,600. CdM took five of

the eight qualifying spots in the 800 and six of the 12 spots in the

1,600. “It’s that CdM depth,” Sumner joked.

Included with Morse in the 800 include Jenny Cummins, Diana Hossfeld,

Becky Cummins and Elisha Morgan. Hossfeld, Jenny Long, Lindsay Yourman,

Season Meservey and Katherine Morse will compete in the 1,600.

The Cummins sisters will also do battle in the girls 400, along with

Morse, while Jaycee Mahler qualified for the 300 LH and the 100 HH.

Also qualifying for the finals for CdM include Allison Harvey in the 200,

Kelly Halley, Krisserin Canary and Karolina Libuda in the 100, Natalia

Dorfman in the 100 HH, Matt Moore, Adam Hoyt and Alex Vinson in the boys

200, Vinson and Kevin Kramer in the boys 400, Josh Yelsey and Travis

Beardslee in the boys 800 and Reed Glyer, Chris Carpenter and Eric

Fransen in the 300 IH.

The finals will take place Friday at Irvine High. Field events will start

at 2:45 p.m., while the running events begin at 4:45 p.m.