Rivalry showdown a split

Rick Devereux

Three weeks off is a long vacation for anyone, but in high school

girls track and field it could feel like an eternity.

But the long break didn’t stop Costa Mesa High from beating

Estancia, 99-28, or Orange, 111-14, Thursday afternoon in a Golden

West League tri-meet at Orange Coast College.

“For us we really haven’t been having a lot of meets, so this is

kind of a wake-up call,” Costa Mesa assistant coach Eugene Day said.

The Mustangs took first place in 12 of the 15 events, including a

top-three sweep in the shot put and 200 meters.

Senior Cassey Brick took first place in the 300 hurdles, 400 relay

and the 100 meters to lead the way for Costa Mesa. But an overall

deep team performance for the Mustangs was the difference, despite

being a little rusty.

“What we did today is not surprising, but we could have done

better if we had been consistently doing one meet per week,” Day

said. “The girls looked pretty good and we’ve got momentum [heading

into league championships].”

The long break between meets affected all of the teams, but the

Eagles, already short of athletes, felt the fatigue especially hard.

“We were way behind on a lot of things because of spring break,”

Estancia Coach Charlie Appell said. “[Rachel McMasters] took nine

days off. Elise Carroll, our sprinter in the 200 and 400, she took

Easter vacation off. Abrego tripled today, she ran 800, 1,600, 3,200.

She was fourth in the 3,200. She ran a lot of events today.”

McMasters, a junior, took second in the 100 and 300 hurdles, but

her times were slower than normal as she finished in 19.74 and 54.38, respectively.

“Her hurdle times were slow,” Appell said. “She’s run [the 300

hurdles] under 53 before.”

Costa Mesa Coach Glenn Mitchell was pleased with the effort, even

if the times were slower than usual.

“Everybody’s doing well,” he said. “We’ve got three weeks left in

the season and we came out here and tried hard.”