Costa Mesa finishes fifth

Joseph Boo

ORANGE - For Costa Mesa High’s girls cross country team, the low

point of the season came when it lost to rival Estancia last week at

Fairview Park. Afterward, senior Julie Hitt called a team meeting.

“We needed to realize we can beat (Estancia),” Hitt said. “It’s the first

time in a couple of years that they had a chance to beat us. We really

didn’t run well in that race. We got every one motivated at the meeting

and told everybody, ‘even if you finish last, you still affect the team.”

The message was sent loud and clear, Costa Mesa came out impressively and

finished fifth in the Division III race at Saturday’s Orange County

Championship in Irvine Park. Although Jamie DeNoewer, who won last year’s

individual race, is now at New Mexico State, the Mustangs improved on

last year’s eighth-place finish.

Costa Mesa had a good placing because it had four runners in the top 30.

Sarah Cotten led the Mustangs by running 20:27 and finished 19th overall.

Hitt came in 22nd, followed immediately by Michelle Barnett at 23rd.

Jackie Nguyen was 27th.

“If we ran like this against Estancia, we would’ve beat them,” Costa Mesa

assistant coach Su (NO “E”) Carney said jokingly.

The start of the race was comically dubious for Costa Mesa when Cotten

and Nguyen were in the restroom when the race started. Not only did they

just get to the race when everybody took off, but they finished well.

“We were sprinting to get there. People were already lined up,’ Cotten

said. “We had to sprint 300-400 meters just to catch up.”

The fifth-place finish was something the Mustangs felt they were capable

of as a team.

“I’m happy with what they did,” Carney said. “I wasn’t surprised. We have

the talent.”

“All our girls ran pretty well, and we’re excited about the league

finals. We might even have a chance to go to CIF.”

It seems like Costa Mesa is back on track, and it would certainly like to

thank Estancia for that.