Bjelland, Rojas blister the field

Two highly-touted area high school runners battled heat that

coaches said reached well into the 90s to win their class divisions

at a sun-drenched Laguna Hills Invitational Saturday at Laguna Hills

High.

Costa Mesa High junior Christine Bjelland won the CIF Division III

junior girls division with an 18:30 and Estancia senior Humberto

Rojas won the CIF Division III senior boys division with a 15:50 on

the three-mile course at Laguna Hills High.

Estancia senior Diane Rosete took second in the senior girls

division with a 19:09 and the Estancia senior boys took second place

with 62 points. Senior Aaron Van Geem ran the three-mile distance in

17:24, Abel Flores ran in 17:43, Sean Zich finished in 18:34,

Francisco Morales paced to an 18:54 and Abdul Kaiyum finished in

19:17.

Bjelland’s time was the second best of the day in any of the girls

divisions, which also included freshman and sophomore races. The

freshman and sophomores began around 8:30 a.m. before temperatures

started soaring, causing the fire marshal to temporarily postpone the

meet around 11:45 a.m., CdM Coach Bill Sumner said.

“We were cooked and were not going to stand around and wait for an

hour-and-a-half,” said Sumner, who didn’t run his senior boys. “There

wasn’t any hesitation. I wasn’t going to do that to our kids. The

fire marshal already told us not to race and that was good enough for

me.”

CdM’s junior and senior girls won their race (25 points) with

senior Becky Cummins taking the third-best time in any girls division

with 19:16, followed by CdM senior Keelan Cuyler (20:04), Taryn

Kawata (20:18), Jennifer Logan (21:11), Kinzie Cramer, Sarah Claster

(22:42) and Kristy Lang (22:55).

Estancia sophomore Alex Cahuantze took second in sophomore boys

(16:45), while juniors Matt Zich took fifth in 16:58, Ponfilo Elias

placed seventh (17:17) with junior Martin Diaz (19:14) and Geovani

Rodea (20:05) also finishing.

Corona del Mar’s senior boys did not run, but junior Kevin Artz

took home a team-best fifth-place finish with 17:08, followed by

seventh-place runner J.C. Turner, Danny Quinlan (17:29 for 13th), Brandon Borcoman (18:38 for 22nd), Chris Ringstrom (18:55), Nick

Cannon (29:31 for 21st), Steve Maynard (21:29 for 33rd). CdM’s

juniors finished second with 73 points to first-place Hemet, which

collected 74.

Costa Mesa’s junior boys, comprised of Marco Huipe, Jorge Raya,

Saul Palomar, Steve Kosnosky, Jess Lara and Arya Stuedja finished

third with the Costa Mesa senior boys that include Carlos Ibarra,

Zach Powell and Tommy Payne finishing eighth at 16:45.

All of Costa Mesa Coach Glenn Mitchell’s team ran except for three

senior boys.

“We got in the shade and rested up and then some decided to run,”

Mitchell said. “None of my kids had any problem at all, we were all

well-hydrated.”

Three to four runners suffered heat exhaustion, prompting the fire

marshal to stop the meet temporarily, Mitchell said.

“I’d never seen anything like it,” he said.

But Newport Harbor girls cross country coach Eric Tweit said the

Laguna Hills meet has been hot in the past, with officials mailing

out information packets detailing the possibility of hot

temperatures.

“I made sure I took kids I knew would be able to run in those

conditions,” Tweit said. “Laguna Hills always seems to be hot.”

Out of Tweit’s 16 runners, sophomore Courtney Marshall finished

with the 14th fastest time of the day in the girls division with

20:45 and was followed by Caitlym Mai at 22nd (21:22). Saturday’s

meet was Mai’s first cross country meet.

“I’m really happy with (Mai),” Tweit said.

Newport freshman Courtney Hanson (22:24), Allison Hochwald

(22:29), and Krystal White (22:38) round out the Newport girls

runners.

CdM sophomore girls took sixth overall, with Annie St. Geme

finishing fifth (21:09). Melissa Swigert finished in 20:18, followed

by Ahlia Kattan’s 20:20 and Devon Ahearn with a 21:41. Sea King

sophomore Garrett Prechel ran in 17:44 in the other CdM varsity time.

Estancia senior Ludy Valdez finished 54th (23:04), Crystal Rincon

took 57th (23:16), junior Fatima Carrasco placed 60th (23:22)

followed by Dianna Castro (25:23), Erika Plietez (26:03) and Rafaela

Sansone (27:07).

Estancia sophomore Areli Flores ran in 22:30 followed by Maria

Abdul (22:38), Luce Leon (24:12), Amanda Charlesworth (25:02) and

Britney Starn (26:24).

Eagles’ Coach Charlie Appell said the heat affected all of his

runners.

“The heat destroyed both the girls and the boys,” Appell said.

“(The heat) is a big factor because Van Geem is usually the second

man along with Flores and today they were fifth and seventh

(overall). Cahuantze and S. Zich ran excellent races and Bjelland ran

a good race as well. We’re a coastal team that doesn’t have the same

heat index in practice as other teams but that’s no excuse.”