A clean slate and a whirl of talent

Bryce Alderton

Three seniors and seven juniors give first-year Costa Mesa boys

cross country coach Glenn Mitchell plenty to work with as he and the

rest of the Mustangs prepare for the upcoming season in their new

confines of the Golden West League.

Mesa finished 12th with 246 points in last year’s CIF Division III

finals with now-departed senior Irwin Salas leading the Mustangs with

a 45th-place finish (16:59.3) as junior-to-be Marco Huipe finished

with a 17:08, good for 50th place in the three-mile course at Mt. San

Antonio College.

Mitchell expects more of the same this year with a more

experienced corps of runners.

Huipe also runs varsity track for Mitchell at Costa Mesa High and

earned All-Pacific Coast League honors last year with a personal-best

(16:01) at league finals.

“(Huipe) is one of the strongest of the bunch,” Mitchell said.

Seniors Carlos Ibarra, Zach Powell and Tommy Payne anchor a group

that features seven juniors including Jorge Raya, Stephen Kosnosky,

Saul Palomar, Juan Avilez, Timmy Tran and Arya Stuedja.

Ibarra is a wrestler by trade according to Mitchell, who asked

Ibarra to dedicate more time to cross country.

“(Ibarra) did cross country in the past to get in shape but I’ve

asked him to step up and give 110% to cross country,” Mitchell said.

“I think he can be one of the best in the league. Zach Powell is an

incredible athlete that has worked hard all summer. Tommy Payne will

be right in there if he can step up and run with Marco, Carlos, Zach

and Jorge. We’re going to be real strong.”

Sophomore Eddie Collins and freshmen Luis Munoz and Lincoln Tran

round out preliminary rosters released by Mitchell Aug. 9. They could

change by the time the season begins in early September.

The Mustangs qualified for the CIF Division III finals with a

third-place finish at the CIF Division III preliminaries.

Mesa welcomes Mitchell, who coached boys and girls cross country

and track and field at Trabuco Hills High for six years before coming

over last spring to coach Mesa’s boys and girls track. He now takes

the reins of Mesa’s boys and girls cross country teams.

“The sky is the limit for this team,” Mitchell said.