Girls track: Newport Harbor shines with trio of winners

Richard Dunn

IRVINE - In a razor-close finish coming up to the last hurdle,

Newport Harbor High freshman Jennifer Ryder pushed her way to a Sea View

League championship.

Ryder, the No. 1 qualifier out of the Sea View preliminaries in the

300-meter hurdles, was one of three members of the Newport Harbor girls

track and field team to win individual league titles Thursday night at

Irvine.

“I guess my strength is always at the end,” Ryder said of her big

push. “I just thought that this could be my last race, so I tried my

hardest. I don’t like having regrets the next day.”

Jillianne Whitfield won the discus at 126 feet, a personal record by

seven feet, and Elizabeth Clayton captured the 100 hurdles in 16.39 as

the Sailors (84 1/2 points) finished second to league team champion

Woodbridge (144 1/2).

The top two individuals in each event automatically qualified for the

CIF Southern Section Division II prelims, and Clayton qualified in four

events, but will probably compete only in the triple jump and hurdles.

In addition to winning the hurdles, Clayton was second in the long

jump (16 feet, 5 inches) and triple jump (35-11) and ran a leg on Newport

Harbor’s CIF-qualifying 400 relay (50.60), which also featured Ashley

Harrison, Elda Hernandez and anchor Kiley Hall.

Hall, a freshman, also clocked a personal best in the 400 (1:00.21)

and qualified for CIF with her runner-up finish to Woodbridge’s Roni

Yadlin (1:00.16). Hernandez was third (1:01.11) and just missed

qualifying.

Whitfield also qualified in the shot put (35-6 1/4) with a

second-place finish, while the Sailors’ 1,600 relay qualified second in

4:08.17 with Tiffany Vandersloot, Hernandez, Lauren Hanson and Hall.

But, in the discus, it was a dominating effort for Whitfield, whose

marks on all six throws surpassed her nearest competitor (runner-up

Marissa Welliver of Aliso Niguel at 103-5).

“Every one of her throws would have won,” Newport Harbor Coach Eric

Tweit said of Whitfield. “For her, it was not just a great (winning)

throw, but a great series of throws.”

In the 300 hurdles, Newport Harbor’s Valerie Day qualified second

(behind Ryder) in 49.41.