Sailors young, but have the talent

Bryce Alderton

Eric Tweit prefers to talk about what his Newport Harbor girls

cross country team has rather than what it lost or doesn’t have.

“I want to focus on the positive rather that what we don’t have or

what we lost,” Tweit said.

What Tweit has are five returners from last season’s team that

finished third in the Sea View League behind Woodbridge and Aliso

Niguel and reached the CIF Division III Preliminaries. Four of them

were in the top seven for Newport a year ago.

Among the returners are junior Lauren Paul and sophomore Courtney

Marshall, who both anchor a team Tweit hopes reaches the CIF

preliminaries again.

Paul took 14th (19:18) at last season’s CIF preliminaries,

finished seventh (18:47) at league finals and was the team’s Most

Valuable Player, while Marshall ran to a 22nd-place finish (19:52) at

league finals.

“Marshall had a strong track season and is one of the better

runners in the league,” Tweit said. “(Paul and Marshall) are the two

main girls.”

The Sailors’ only returning senior, Andi Sarris, took 19th (19:38)

in league finals followed by junior Amanda Abbott’s 20:15 (24th) and

sophomore Allison Hochwald’s 21:13, good for 28th place.

Tough league rivals may make the road to the CIF preliminaries a

bit bumpy for Tweit’s Sailors.

“Our goal is the CIF preliminaries -- to finish at least third in

(the Sea View League) and get there,” Tweit said. “But it’s going to

be a lot tougher with Foothill coming into the league this year along

with Woodbridge, Aliso Niguel and Irvine.”

Tweit remains optimistic from what he’s seen during summer

workouts such as the team’s recent trip to Mammoth for a weeklong

running camp.

“It hurts our depth,” he said. “Last year we had eight or nine

vying for varsity to five or six this season, but we have some young

talented runners.”

Sophomore newcomer Caitlim Mai, who only began running this

summer, could be a surprise, Tweit said.

“She has been the biggest surprise of everyone,” said Tweit of

Mai. “In five or six weeks she could be in (our) top five.”

Also among the newcomers are junior Heidi Peschelt, who ran junior

varsity last season, and “had a really good summer,” according to

Tweit, seniors Elda Hernandez and Amy Lowery, junior Esther DeLaRosa

and sophomore Jenny Sarris.

Freshmen Amy Klippert, Kaitlyn Watson, Courtney Hanson and Leslie

Hanssens figure to make an impact as well.

Newport’s first meet will be the Laguna Hills Invitational Sept.

14.

“We’re young but still have some experience, which we’re hoping to

work to our advantage,” Tweit said.