Estancia, CdM advances to state

Joseph Boo

WALNUT - Estancia High’s boys cross country team will be going to

Saturday’s State Championship at Woodward Park in Fresno for the third

consecutive time. For Corona del Mar, it will return for the first time

since 1996, when the Sea Kings prevailed as champions.

In what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, the young and deep Estancia

squad culminated a season-long improvement with third place in the

Division IV race on Saturday morning’s CIF Southern Section finals at Mt.

San Antonio College.

“We didn’t expect this,” Estancia Coach Charlie Appell said, “I’m very

excited. But there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

Humberto Rojas again led the Eagles with a 12th place finish. It was

Estancia’s pack running that enabled it to finish third comfortably. The

Eagles’ fifth runner, Abe Inouye, was the second best No. 5 runner among

all the teams.

“We were spread out,” Appell said. “But we ran close enough as a pack.”

Last year’s team finished seventh at the state behind graduate Alberto

Munoz. For a team comprised almost entirely of freshmen and sophomores

this year, the Estancia crew is ecstatic about going north.

“If there is a letdown next week,” Appell said, “it’s because we got this

far. Happiness is being able to go to State again.”

Like Estancia’s young runners, many of CdM’s runners will experience the

State Meet for the first time with a fourth-place finish in Division IV.

CdM advanced mainly on the back of Travis Beardslee and Josh Yelsey.

Yelsey started out especially fast, and at one time, led the entire field

including Big Bear’s Ryan Hall, considered the best runner in the

division.

“Beardslee pushed me up in front of Hall, and I ran with him for two

miles,” Yelsey said.

He ended up in seventh. Beardslee actually beat his teammate, crossing

the finish line at fourth.

But CdM’s spot in the state meet was not assured. CdM’s middle three

runners were in a dogfight for positions throughout the race, and

eventually beat Laguna Beach by a mere five points.

“Travis and Josh carried us,” CdM Coach Bill Sumner said. “But we need

help from the back. We’ll get it though. They’re young.”

Now the Sea Kings advance to the state finals for the first time since

1996, when CdM won it. And Kevin Kramer, the only runner who was on that

team, made a bold statement.

“I think this (current) team is better,” he said.

For Newport Harbor, ranked No. 2 in Division II, Saturday was a

continuation of last week’s performance. After barely qualifying for the

CIF final, the Sailors finished eighth as a team. Unlike last week

though, a poor performance wasn’t the main culprit. Instead, it might

have been the slick course.

“Three of our guys ran their fastest time on the course,” Newport Harbor

Coach Bim Barry said. “If all of them ran there fastest time, we still

might not have won. Teams ran very well today. It was the perfect day

with the perfect weather, so everybody had fast times.”

“(Doug) Dukes did a great job breaking 16:00. Chris McMillen, with a

16:15, came in 23rd. He did a good job.”

CIF FINALS

(at Mt. San Antonio College)

Corona del Mar

4. Travis Beardslee, 15:44; 7. Josh Yelsey, 15:52; 49. Kevin Kramer,

17:16; 56. Blake Dillion, 17:27; 64. Dustin Hodges, 17:41; 69. Judd

Heitbrink, 17:45.

Estancia

12. Humberto Rojas, 16:02; 34. Luis Segoviano, 16:56; 35. Mike Casillas,

16:57; 38. Danny Vargas, 17:00; 41. Abe Inouye, 17:02; 52. Abel Flores,

17:19.

Newport Harbor

12. Doug Dukes, 15:57; 23. Chris McMillen, 16:15; 39. Chris Landgren,

16:27; 60. Jon Peschelt, 16:54; 62. Ivan Romero, 16:56; 72. Hugo Cortes,

17:12; 74. Joel Furman, 17:15.