Girls track and field: Strong showing for Sailors

Tony Altobelli

IRVINE - Some familiar faces as well as some new ones walked away

from Thursday’s Sea View League girls track and field finals as champion.

Sailors’ junior Amber Steen refused to walk away quietly, winning three

individual events.

Steen successfully defended her 1,600- (5:03.66) and 3,200-meter titles

with relative ease. She also won the 800 with a personal-best time of

2:17.14.

To show her dominance in the 1,600, Steen, neck and neck with

Woodbridge’s Jessica Kanin after 800 meters, turned on the jets and had a

nine-second advantage after 1,200 meters and a 15-second edge at the

finish.

In the 800, Irvine High’s Christine Carter ran an inspired race just to

hang in there with Steen, before succumbing to the Steen burst in the

final 300 meters, winning by over four seconds.

“Needless to say, Amber really stepped up tonight,” Coach Eric Tweit said

of Steen, who also helped the 1,600 relay team take the top spot. “Seeing

her PR in the 800 was really great to see. She was very strong tonight.”

Senior Krista Dill is also a two-time, two-event league champion after

successfully defending her shot put and discus throw titles. She

destroyed the field by nearly 32 feet in the discus with a personal-best

throw of 133-1. Her ??-? mark in the shot was over three feet better than

anyone else.

Perhaps the most pleasant showing of the night came in the 300

intermediate hurdles when Sailor freshman Valerie Day led from start to

finish to win with a personal-best 47.86.

“You expect the older athletes to do some things, but to see a freshman

perform like she did was tremendous,” Tweit said. “That was the highlight

of the meet for me.”

Senior April Ross was the winner in the high jump, clearing 5-2, winning

the event by one inch.

Ross also took second in the triple jump (35-3), which qualified her for

next week’s CIF Southern Section Preliminaries in both events. She took

fourth in the long jump (15-11 1/2).

Joining Ross in the triple jump will be Breonna Tiffany, who took third

at 33-1 1/2.

The top three in each event will move on to the prelims, which take place

at Mt. San Antonio College on Friday.

Joining the top three will also be anyone that surpassed the CIF

qualifying time or mark in each event.

Lisa Gerlach placed third in the discus with a strong throw of 105-4,

earning her a place at the CIF prelims.

Nadia Topalovic came in fourth place in the 400 with a 1:01.74, a PR for

her. Another PR time in the same race came from Natalie Standre with a

1:03.08, good for seventh place.

“It was really nice to see them step up for tonight,” Tweit said.

Joining Steen in the 800 will be Lynn Rinek, who placed third in the 800

(2:23.81), edging out Woodbridge’s Jessica Kanin for that important No. 3

spot. “She had never beaten her until tonight,” Tweit said. “I was very

happy to see that.”

In the team totals, the Sailors ended up in second place behind

Woodbridge.

One missing factor in the finals was freshman sprinter Amy Burlingham,

who did not compete due to a prior engagement.

Despite the runner-up finish, Tweit was very pleased with the outcome.

“Our girls performed well tonight,” Tweit said. “We had some younger kids

step up and the older ones did what they had to do to be successful.”