Jumping to conclusions

Holden Penney is a soccer player, but more than that she’s an athlete.

And perhaps even more than that, the Laguna Beach High senior is a competitor.

So this year she decided to go out for track. She said she had the time to do it, but this year’s track season has already amounted to much more than a leisurely stroll through the final months of a high school career.

Like any competitor, she likes to win, and Penney is turning heads. She did it Saturday at the San Clemente Invitational, when she won the girls’ open division long jump with a mark of 16 feet, 9 1/2 inches.

“I have to win in Yahtzee or Monopoly, or I throw a little fit,” Penney said. “I thought I’d be able to take [track] light-heartedly, but I like to compete. I’m in it to win it. It’s a team sport, even in track. If you’re not giving it your all, how can you expect anyone else to?”

No one would ever accuse Penney of that, not after four years of soccer success at Laguna Beach. The player who started on varsity as a freshman ended her high school career last month by helping the Breakers advance to the CIF Southern Section Division III playoffs.

Penney, the Orange Coast League MVP, started the year as center defender but was brought up to the midfield midway through. Despite this, the team captain led Laguna Beach with 10 goals and 12 assists, Coach Bill Rolfing said.

She also plays club for the Laguna Niguel Rage Under-19 premier team. Penney’s skills on the soccer field earned her a chance to play for a Division I college, Centenary College of Louisiana. But track? This was a sport where she had no experience.

A handful of meets in though, and Penney is already showing her mettle in both the long jump and sprints. At the San Clemente Invitational, she was 12th in the 100-meter dash (13.18 seconds) and eighth in the 200 meters (26.79).

Breakers junior Brett Linkletter, one of the top jumpers on the boys’ side, is one teammate who’s impressed.

“She’s just full of natural talent, but she has so much more potential to go,” Linkletter said. “I think a lot of girls see that, because she gets better and better every week. It’s something visual you can see. It’s not just over [the course] of a year, it’s every week she gets better.

“I knew she was athletic, because she has a scholarship for soccer. But jumps is completely different than any other sport. To get considerably better every week takes a lot, and for her to come out and do that was pretty crazy. She’s already jumping 16-11 [her best this season]. That’s insane. A lot of guys are happy with 17 feet.”

Penney can’t really explain it either, but she’ll take it.

“Long jump was completely out of the blue,” she said. “One-hundred [meters] I thought I would do OK in, and 200 I hadn’t really even considered. I really wanted to do 4x100 because it’s a relay and a team thing, so it looked like more fun. I’ve tried softball, tennis. I just like sports. I would play flag football if they had flag football for school.”

Laguna jumps coach Mark Harris said Penney is still raw, so there indeed is plenty of room for improvement. She puts her personal goal at 17-6, while Harris said he could see her winning the Orange Coast League in the event and hopefully qualifying for CIF finals.

“She brings a really good energy, a good work ethic,” Harris said. “It’s starting to spill over into the other athletes ... She draws a little crowd now when she jumps. The male jumpers are watching her, going, ‘Wow!’ ”

People would be wise not to underestimate Penney, although this is the same person who only started playing soccer in the third grade because her younger brother, Norton, was going to play.

“I wouldn’t play before then because I thought the uniforms were ugly,” Penney said, laughing. “Now I have more soccer shorts than regular clothes.”