Boys and girls track and field: Locals crowd CIF Division III

prelims

Barry Faulkner

MISSION VIEJO - Corona del Mar High seniors Josh Yelsey and Jenny

Cummins, as well as sophomore Alison Brawner, were CIF Southern Section

Division III runners-up last spring. They’re back to try and go one

better this year, beginning with today’s Division III preliminaries at

Trabuco Hills High. Field events start at 3:30 p.m.

Yelsey, one of five Newport-Mesa athletes poised to advance to next

week’s finals in more than one event, was second last spring in the CIF

Division III 1,600 meters. After winning three individual crowns at last

week’s Pacific Coast League Finals, he enters today’s 1,600 heats with the third-fastest qualifying time (4:25.60). He will also compete in the

3,200, in which he enters with the eighth-fastest qualifying mark

(9:57.55).

Qualifying times are taken from league finals and, thus, may not be

career or season bests. Nine qualifiers will advance to the Division III

Finals (May 19 at Cerritos College), except the 3,200, which will produce

12 finalists.

Cummins, second last year in the Division III 800, posted the top

qualifying mark in that event this year (2:17.38). Brawner, second in

last year’s Division III high jump, has the second-best qualifying mark

at this year’s prelims (5-4), trailing only PCL champion Sharon Day

(5-6), from Costa Mesa High, the reigning Division III high jump

champion.

Day, whose PCL-winning 400 time of 59.98 makes her the fifth-fastest

qualifier, joins CdM senior Diana Hossfeld, CdM junior Julie Allen,

Yelsey and Estancia sophomore Humberto Rojas as threats to advance in

more than one individual event.

Allen, a transfer from Fountain Valley High, has the top qualifying

time in the 1,600 (5:04.11) and 3,200 (11:14.33), having won both events

at PCL Finals. She also qualified second in the 800 (2:17.12).

Hossfeld qualified second in the 1,600 (5:08.24), fourth in the 800

(2:21.71) and fifth in the 3,200 (11:39.55).

Rojas enters with the fifth-fastest qualifying time in the 1,600

(4:28.43) and sixth-fastest in the 800 (1:59.04).

Top local candidates to advance include Estancia senior Liz Huipe

(11:31.31 for second in the 3,200), CdM junior Season Meservey (11:38.92

for fourth in the 3,200), CdM senior Jaycee Mahler (47.12 for sixth in

the 300 hurdles), CdM junior Krisserin Canary (10-0, tied for eighth in

the pole vault), CdM senior Travis Beardslee (9:59.04 for ninth in the

3,200), and the CdM 1,600 relay of Becky and Jenny Cummins, Katherine

Morse and Mahler (4:05.74 for fourth).

The aforementioned relay, with Liz Morse subbing for her sister

Katherine, won the CIF Division III crown to help CdM claim the girls

team championship last year.