Costa Mesa starts over

Joseph Boo

COSTA MESA - Costa Mesa High’s new boys cross country coach Eric

Davies knows it’s a rebuilding year. “We’re basically starting a whole

new boys team,” Davies said.

But when he says starting a new team, he means it literally. The

Mustangs’ squad wil not only be filled with new runners, but a lot of

them will be running cross country for the first time.

To fill out the rest of the team, Davies is holding an open tryout, which

means most of the team will be made up of runners who never ran cross

country before. With so many new runners, the Mustangs will find last

years sixth place showing in the CIF Southern Section Division IV meet

hard to match.

The team would’ve been hard-pressed to match last year’s result no matter

who came back because of the loss of Bruce Hancock, who graduated and is

now at Princeton. He was the anchor of last year’s Mustangs squad,

finishing fourth in the CIF division meet and eigth at state. His absence

leaves a glaring hole in their line-up.

Davies’ hope for the season rest on the two returning runners, juniors

Mike Williams and Dasan Busegll. Replacing Hancock on the course is

virtually impossible. Instead, they will be counted on to provide

leadership and guide an inexperienced team.

With only two runners having cross country experience, Costa Mesa will be

find it difficult to remain competitive, much less repeat last year’s

goals. The roster is still unsettled, and Davies needs more runners to

fill it out.

There’s always hope that someone can rise out of nowhere and contribute.

Freshman Thomas Payne looks promising, and so does junior Brian

HeMenover. But they have to produce immediately for the Mustangs to be

competitive.

Fortunately for Costa Mesa, the Pacific Coast League is fairly weak this

year, with transplanted Corona del Mar also reloading. That leaves

Northwood, who’s enjoying the infusion of Irvine runners and University.

But with a lot of unknowns and inexperienced runners, this is a huge

rebuilding year for Costa Mesa. “We really don’t have a boys team right

now,” Davies said. “We have to fill out the team this year. We’re

basically starting from scartch.”

” Right now, they don’t always have the distance in training. We’re

trying to get there right now.”

Teaching a cross country team how to run longer distances. They really

are starting from scratch.

Roster

Mike Williams Jr.

Dasan Busegll Jr.

Brian HeMenover Jr.

Thomas Payne Fr.