Lightweight: Newport boys are on to something

Joseph Boo

Newport Harbor High’s boys track and field coach Bim Barry must

have been pleased with his athletes on Thursday. Not only did his varsity

win the Sea View League title, its first league championship since 1979.

But the junior varsity team took home the Sea View League at Irvine, and

the frosh/soph guys were second to Aliso Niguel.

The JV Sailors got quite a performance from junior Guy Vackar. He blew

out the field in three distance individual events, the 800 meters

(2.08.27), the 1,600 (4:56.80) and the 3,200 (10:52.40).

Junior Dan Fletcher was a double winner for Newport’s JV squad. He

captured the 200 (24.52) and the 400 (53.74) for the Sailors.

Newport’s Mitch Gray was second in the 100 dash (12.37) and Jeremy Wilson

collected two third-place finishes in the field events to help the

Sailors, the long jump (16-11) and the triple jump (36-3 1/2).

Newport’s frosh/soph boys team was locked in a two-team battle with the

Wolverines. The list of Sailor highlights run long, which shows how deep

the Wolverines were.

Newport’s Zack Zarnow won both frosh/soph boys hurdle events. He took the

110 high hurdles in a convincing 17.94. But the 300 was a lot closer. In

fact, he was just three-hundredths of a second ahead of Laguna Hills’

Vince Rodriguez.

It was bad luck for Newport’s Dede Johnson to be stuck behind

Woodbridge’s Will Banks, but Johnson still ran two great races. In an

impressively fast 100, he was just ahead of Woodbridge’s A.G. Green for

second with a 12.06, while losing to Gray by .42 seconds. Johnson was

also the runner-up in the 200 (23.87).

Sophomore Chris Negrete, a member of Newport’s varsity cross country

team, had two top-three finishes in distance events. He was second in the

800 (2:05.72), while teammate John Kerr was third (2:08.74). Negrete

finished third in the 3,200 (10:34.47), behind another teammate Jesus

Santana (10:26.63). Santana almost won the race, but he just fell short

at the finish line.

The Sailors also did well in the boys frosh/soph field events. Jordan

Smith won the long jump (17-6 1/2) and was fifth in the triple jump (36-8

1/2). Teammate Landon Praire placed second in the triple jump (27-2 1/2).

In the weight events, Robert Chai was second in the shot put (44-10 1/4).

Jack Skaben had two fourth place finishes in the shot put (41-11 1/2) and

the discus (100-6) to score for Newport. And Jeff Marshall was second in

the discus (105-0).

The Sailors’ JV girls team was solid in field events as they helped

Newport place third overall. Sophomore Amy Ross won the shot put with a

29-3 1/2. Newport’s JV volleyball standout Kristen McClune was the

runner-up in the high jump with a 4-8. Erica Cook was second in the long

jump (14-6 1/2).

In JV girls track events, Marianne Herberts won the 1,600 by a 10 second

margin with a winning time of 5:48.70. The Sailors were also helped out

with fourth place finishes from Crystal Doteon (24.05 in the 100), Elda

Hernandez (28.91 in the 200) and Lynn Rinek (2:23.81 in the 800).