Cross country: Eagles spread wings at CIF prelims

Tony Altobelli

WALNUT - The locals were coming in by the truckload Saturday at the

CIF Southern Section Division IV boys cross country preliminaries at Mt.

San Antonio College.

Estancia High’s running machine continued to pound through the

opposition, taking six of the top 18 spots in its heat.

Leading the senior-less brigade for the Eagles was junior Luis

Segoviano, who came in fifth place with a 16:03.3. Right behind Segoviano

was junior Mike Casillas with a 16:07.4 and Humberto Rojas with a

16:08.7.

Most, if not all the times put together by the Eagles were better than

their last race on the same course, which was the Mt. SAC Invitational a

month ago.

“I think the boys were reaching back for more than last time,” Eagles

Coach Charlie Appell said. “Overall, I’m very happy with the way today

panned out. Next week should be very exciting.”

Following the Eagles’ 5-6-7 group was a 16-17-19 package that included

juniors Gerardo Orozco (16:46.9) and Erik Lopez (17:02.9) as well as

Aaron Van Geem (17:08.0).

The Corona del Mar squad also qualified for Saturday’s CIF finals by

placing fourth in the heat with 103 points.

Like the Eagles, the Sea Kings’ times also improved from last month’s

Mt. SAC Invitational, but Coach Bill Sumner still sees some work to be

done.

“Our middle of the pack isn’t in the middle at the moment,” he said.

“Some of our older runners need to take care of what they have to do in

order for our team to be successful. Fortunately, we have some freshmen

that have stepped it up for us.”

One of those aforementioned freshmen is Danny Quinlan, whose 17:43

placed him 37th, faster than any other freshman competing in the heat.

So just why did Saturday’s time far surpass his showing on the same

course a month ago? “The last race, my shoe got untied and I was afraid

it was going to fall off,” he admitted. “The coach said to stay with the

pack and to keep our two fast runners in our sights. I did the best I

could and it worked out well.”

In Quinlan’s sights were the Sea Kings’ dynamic duo of Travis

Beardslee and Josh Yelsey.

Beardslee finished third with a 15:40.3, while Yelsey followed the

Estancia trio for eighth place (16:11.8).

Costa Mesa’s Irwin Salas, the lone Mustang racing on Saturday,

finished 18th in his Division III heat with a 16:41.1 and did not advance

to the finals.

Locals aside, in the same heat, Big Bear High phenom Ryan Hall

scorched the trail with a time of 14:35.3, just three seconds off the

course record and 54 seconds ahead of his next competitor, teammate Art

Avita (15:29.8).

“People want to say the competition isn’t as strong in Division IV,”

Sumner said. “I tell them, ‘Come on down to Division IV. We’d love to

race you.’ ”