Estancia “only” finishes second

Joseph Boo

WALNUT - After winning the Pacific Coast League championship meet

last week, Estancia’s boys cross country team finished second in its heat

at Saturday’s CIF Southern Section Preliminaries at Mt. San Antonio

College to advance to next week’s Division IV Finals.

So here’s what went wrong, according to Estancia Coach Charlie Appell.

“Two or three of our runners tripped. (Eighth-place finisher) Humberto

Rojas got his typical side pains at the end. The boys still don’t have

confidence.”

So it’s a wonder and an impressive one, that Estancia advanced to the

finals. Appell though, gave credit to his two seniors, Abe Inouye and

Danny Vargas.

“Inouye and Vargas really held our team together on the course,” he said.

Estancia placed its top five runners in the top 25 to advance to the

finals comfortably. Surely, even its coach has to acknowledge his team’s

potential.

“We’ll be in good shape,” Appell said. “All the teams will be coming out

of the woodwork though. It’s the last race of the year. Just because we

finished second today doesn’t mean anything.”

Yeah, but it’s still second.

“Exactly,” he continued. “Just imagine what they’ll be like if they start

running with confidence.”

Corona del Mar’s boys team did exactly what it wanted to do, advance to

next week’s Division IV Finals. The Sea Kings finished third in their

heat, with Travis Bearslee and Josh Yelsey leading the way.

“We ran as hard as we could,” CdM Coach Bill Sumner said. “We were

conservative. We held back, but not too much. It’s a contradiction, but

we ran hard but conservatively. We were running within ourselves.”

Overall, CdM placed its top five runners in the top 40.

“Kevin Kramer stepped up today,” Sumner said. “We were waiting for him to

step up as our No. 3 runner. Judd Heitbrink ran really well. He’s been

fighting the flu. And Blake Dillion is starting to come around.”

Newport Harbor qualified for the Division II Finals, but it was a

disappointing day for the Sailors.

“Honestly,” Newport Harbor Coach Bim Barry said, “we were terrible. Our

main objective was to qualify, which we did. But I thought we would

finish better. We’re the No. 2 team in our division, so it’s very

disappointing for us to finish fourth in our own race.”

The Sailors’ Doug Dukes and Chris McMillan ran well, but as Barry noted,

“They should have more company.”

“Fortunately, we have a chance to run better next week. The slate is

wiped clean. But we have some improving to do.”

CIF PRELIMINARIES

(at Mt. San Antonio College)

Corona del Mar

8. Travis Beardslee, 16:23; 9. Josh Yelsey, 16:36; 31. Kevin Kramer, 17:27; 35. Judd Heitbrink, 17:38; 42. Blake Dillion, 17:56; 55. Dustin

Hodges, 18:16; 70. Mark Pomerantz, 18:46.

Estancia

8. Humerto Rojas, 17:01; 11. Luis Segoviano, 17:06; 14. Danny Vargas,

17:19; 22. Abe Inouye, 17:36; 24. Mike Casillas, 17:42; 31. Abe Flores,

17:51; 75. Eric Lopez, 19:53.

Newport Harbor

4. Doug Dukes, 16:26; 9. Chris McMillan, 16:43; 29. John Peschalt, 17:28;

36. Ivan Romero, 17:36; 38. Joel Furman, 17:37; 47. Hugo Cortes, 17:55;

66. Chris Landgren, 18:22.