Boys track and field: Sailors aim fortop spot

Richard Dunn

IRVINE - Prior to Monday’s Sea View League boys track and field

preliminaries at Irvine High, Newport Harbor High senior Peter Bas

stopped his coach, Bim Barry, on campus and asked if he could miss the

meet because he wasn’t feeling well.

“If I didn’t run, would I still be in the finals?” Bas asked Barry,

who politely, and sympathetically, said no, explaining that only 1,600-

and 3,200-meter runners went straight to Thursday’s finals, also at

Irvine.

“I reassured (Bas) that he’d be OK if he competed in the prelims, and

just run to qualify,” added Barry, who watched Bas, considered a strong

candidate to win the Sea View championship in the 400 while coming in

with a season-best 51.40, qualify No. 1 with a 51.51 clocking.

“He ran a solid race ... They only take the top eight to the finals,”

continued Barry, who guided Newport Harbor to an undefeated Sea View

League dual-meet campaign this year.

In addition to no distance races, there were no field events --

another Newport Harbor strength -- contested in the prelims.

“You’d think we would be (favored to capture the league team title),

but I don’t approach it that way, even though we did beat everybody in

dual meets,” Barry said. “We certainly want to (win it). That would be

our preferred outcome. We want to be No. 1 as a team and have guys

qualifying individually for CIF (Southern Section Division II

preliminaries) and getting their best marks of the year.

“So, yeah, I guess we conveniently have several ways we can define

success on Thursday.”

In the first of two 400 heats, Bas was pushed by sophomore teammate

Matthew Tracy, who qualified second in 52.38.

“We had no huge surprises,” Barry said. “I think everything went as

well as we would’ve liked. Probably the most surprising thing on the

varsity level was Tracy, not just because he qualified, but because he

qualified second. That was his best time and it surprised me that it was

the second-fastest qualifying time ... (Tracy) even has a dinged-up knee,

so we’re happy with that (performance).”

In the 400 finals, Bas is also expected to be pushed by Aliso Niguel’s

Suhail Paige, who qualified third in 52.52. Bas edged Paige earlier this

spring at the Orange County Championships at Trabuco Hills.

“They’ve been going back and forth,” Barry said of the Bas-Paige

matchup. “It’ll be a competitive final. The race is certainly not a done

deal.”

Newport Harbor junior Dartangan Johnson won his heat and qualified

second in the 200 (23.39) and qualified third in the 100 (11.72).

Adam Kerns qualified fourth in the 200 for Newport Harbor in 23.68.

For the Sailors in the 800, Noe Perez’s big kick in the final 100

meters resulted in a No. 3-qualifying time of 2:02.94. He finished second

in his heat behind Aliso Niguel’s Charles Rollins (2:02.19).

Newport Harbor’s Nick Miller (2:07.89), Alec Urtu (2:08.48) and Geoff

Doody (2:08.70) qualified fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively, as the

Tars will fill half of the lanes in the finals.