Girls track and field: Steen-roller

Tony Altobelli

IRVINE - What Secretariat was to the 1972 horse racing Triple

Crown, Newport Harbor High’s Amber Steen was to Sea View League track and

field.

Steen, already a six-time individual league champion in various

events, added three more to her collection at Friday night’s league

finals at Irvine High.

“We’ve had some great athletes come to Newport Harbor, but Amber has

set a new standard,” Harbor Coach Eric Tweit said. “She’s the type of

athlete who comes around once in a lifetime.”

Steen led the Sailors to a second-place team finish with 85 points,

behind league kingpin Woodbridge. “Overall, we did better than I

expected,” Tweit said. “From top to bottom, we did fantastic.”

Steen’s first title came in the 1,600 meters where the senior standout

stayed with the pack for the first 1,300 before turning on the jets for a

time of 5:02.69, her fourth 1,600 league title of her career. Teammate

Lauren Paul was fifth with a 5:23.88.

Steen made it 2 for 2, defending her 800 title, with a time of

2:12.79. Newport’s Natalie St. Andre came in seventh with a 2:31.20.

After Steen dominated the field for the third year in a row in the

3,200 (11:08.46), winning by more than 200 meters, she wraps up her Sea

View League career with nine individual titles. “Nine league titles,

really?” Steen asked. “Wow, that’s not too shabby, huh?”

Steen wrapped up her night running the final leg of the 1,600 relay

where she, Ashley Harrison, Patty Vasquez and Lauren Hanson placed third

in 4:03.33.

In perhaps the closest matchup of the night, Newport’s Amy Burlingham,

Woodbridge standout Ashley Sanford and Aliso Niguel’s Whitney Harrison

battled right down to the finish line in the 100.

Sanford had a slight lead, but the other two closed in at the wire.

Sanford crossed the line with a winning time of 12.39, .02 seconds ahead

of Burlingham.

The sophomore quickly bounced back, however, and scorched the track in

the 200, winning with a time of 25.48. “Amy is a very, very fierce

competitor,” Tweit said. “I think there was some extra incentive in that

200.”

The girls 400 relay team of Harrison, Vasquez, Hanson and Burlingham

placed second just behind Woodbridge with a time of 50.72.

Elizabeth Clayton placed third in the long jump (16-feet-3), while

Evita Castillo (15-6 1/2). came in fifth.

Jillianne Whitfield came through for second place in the discus with a

solid mark of 98-5, and was third in the shot put (33-8 1/2), bettering

her personal best by more than two feet. Taylor Govaars placed sixth in

the discus (88-1).

Patty Vasquez clocked a 1:00.87 in the 400, good enough for fourth

place, while Kristen McClune came in fourth in the high jump (4-8).

Valerie Day placed second in the 300 hurdles with a personal-best time

of 48.80. She also took fifth in the 100 hurdles (17.52).

Amy Ross (sixth, 31-8), Govaars (eighth, 29-9 1/2) and Claire Allen

(11th, 27-9 3/4), rounded out the Sailors’ competitors in the shot put.

In a first for the Sailors’ girls track, Hailey Miller and Allyson

Stoltz became the first two to compete in the varsity pole vault. The

twosome tied for sixth with a mark of 7-6.

Clayton came through with a third-place mark of 16-3 in the long jump

and a sixth-place mark of 51.55 in the 300 hurdles. Teammate Evita

Castillo placed fifth with a 15-6 1/2. Clayton posted a strong mark in

the triple jump (35-0). Castillo came in fourth with a 33-3 1/2.