Girls track and field: Sailors share league lead

Barry Faulkner

NEWPORT BEACH - While Newport Harbor High senior Amber Steen was

scoring points, Sailors sophomore Amy Burlingham had a score to settle

Wednesday in a Sea View League girls track and field dual meet against

visiting Aliso Niguel.

Both helped the hosts earn a 72-64 victory, which allowed the Sailors

(7-1, 3-1 in league) to pull into a three-way tie for first, heading into

next week’s league finals.

Steen, a two-time CIF Southern Section Division II cross country

champion and the reigning Sea View League champion in the 800 meters,

1,600 and 3,200, won all three of those events, in addition to anchoring

the clinching 1,600 relay victory.

Burlingham, who entered the meet unbeaten this spring against Sea View

competition in the 100 and 200, saw that streak end when Wolverine

Whitney Harrison bested her in the 100.

“Amy didn’t like getting beat in the 100,” Newport girls coach Eric

Tweit said.

Burlingham, known for her extreme competitiveness, admitted she was

fueled by anger when she defeated Harrison in the 200, winning in 25.6.

Burlingham may still have been a little miffed when she took the baton

for the second leg of the 1,600 relay. Behind by about 20 meters, she not

only made up the deficit, but created about a 10-meter lead, before

handing off to Nadja Topalovic, who then passed to Steen, who cruised

home without a serious challenge.

Burlingham’s split was 59.2, which matched the winning time in the 400

posted by Aliso’s Amy Devine.

Though Tweit singled out Steen and Burlingham, he also had praise for

several other Sailors.

Freshman pole vaulter Amy Stoltz was at the top of that list,

supplying a surprising second-place finish with a clearance of 8-0.

“Things weren’t going as well as I thought they might early and I

actually thought we were going to get beaten badly,” Tweit said. “But

then we got some points from events we normally don’t and, all of a

sudden, it came down to the relay.”

Topalovic (300 hurdles), Elizabeth Clayton (triple jump), Jill

Whitfield (shot put) and Taylor Govaars (discus) also won events for the

Sailors, who received second-place showings from Lauren Paul (3,200),

Patty Vasquez (400), Valerie Day (300 hurdles) and Kristen McClune (high

jump).

Aliso Niguel had posted the fastest 1,600 relay time in Orange County

this season, but Newport prevailed.

“(Vasquez) did what she needed to do on the leadoff leg and Amy made

things easy for Topalovic and Amber,” Tweit said.

“Winning today gives us a shot at the league title going into next

week. If we’d lost, we would have been third and really not had much of a

shot.”