Blue shines on toasty day

For the majority of the high school runners Saturday in the

season-opening Laguna Hills cross country invitational, the heat and

humidity got the best of them at Laguna Hills High.

“It had to be 90 degrees out there,” Corona del Mar Coach Bill

Sumner said. “I didn’t even cut my kids loose. I told them, ‘Look at

this as a warm-up with uniforms on.’ I didn’t let any of my kids run

hard.”

While it was not necessarily a day for personal-record times, some

established themselves among the top runners in Orange County, like

Newport Harbor’s Whitney Blue, who won the girls Division II senior

race in 19:03.

“She’s definitely one of the best runners in Orange County,”

Newport Harbor Coach Eric Tweit said.

The invitational featured winners by class, not varsity, junior

varsity and frosh/soph, and Tweit’s Sailors captured two of the

individual Division II titles with Blue and Lauren Maddox in the

girls sophomore race (19:53).

“We have one other girl [Courtney Marshall] right there with

Whitney Blue, but [Marshall’s] hurt and will not run until next week

[at the Woodbridge invitational],” Tweit said.

The next best times for Newport Harbor were Zuzana Bernard (14th

in the sophomore race at 21:14), Kaitlin Mai (13th in the senior race

at 21:32), Lily Dierkes (23rd in the sophomore race at 22:02), Taylor

Bryson (31st in the sophomore race at 22:26) and Hannah Patrick (22nd

in the freshman race at 22:57).

Other Harbor girls were junior Tessa Shane (23:49), junior Leslie

Hanssens (24:04), sophomore Blair Belling (24:33), freshman Kristen

Benjamin (24:36), freshman Sophia Ditty (25:04), freshman Rebecca

Brown (25:24), sophomore Sara Bailey (25:26) and senior Allison

Hochwald (26:05).

The top-seven times for Coach Nowell Kay’s Newport Harbor boys

were Kenny Rakestraw (sixth in the junior race at 16:41), Nick St.

Andre (fourth in senior race at 16:42), Martin Bernard (17:53 in

senior race), Mike Madison (18:57 in junior race), Murphy Hitchkock

(18:59 in freshman race), Hunter Wiley (19:00 in junior race) and

Mike Jugan (19:04 in sophomore race).

For Corona del Mar, the junior boys won the Division III team

title behind Jack Turner (16:39), Kenneth Wong (16:49) and Ryan

Guthrie (17:01), while Annie St. Geme won the girls junior race in

19:23 and Allison Damon captured the girls freshman race in 20:00.

CdM’s other top boys were juniors Tommy Hutchison (17:38), Tim

Scott (18:31) and Jiho Choi (18:54) and senior Cliff Taylor (19:00).

The Sea Kings’ other top girls were juniors Hilary May (19:59),

Nichole Slykhous (20:13) and Christie St. Geme (20:49) and seniors

Ahlia Kattan (20:54) and Devon Ahearn (21:02).

Also in Division III were Costa Mesa, Estancia and Sage Hill,

which featured Katie McKeon running a school-record 20:36 for the

Lightning and placing fifth overall in the freshman girls race.

Mollie McGann was 17th out of 84 runners in the girls sophomore race

(23:03) for Sage Hill. Senior Mike Voge ran the quickest boys time

for Sage in 18:06, while junior Zach Chandy was clocked in 19:08 and

freshman Connor Rose in 19:31.

For Estancia’s boys, junior Ernesto Castaneda (17:47) and senior

Alex Cahuantzi (17:56) ran the best times, followed by Brian Essen

(18:19), Gio Rodea (18:29), Ben Morales (20:15) and Curtis Fisher

(20:49).

Coach Charlie Appell’s Eagle girls were led by senior Lucy Leon

(24:25) and junior Jessie Rincon (27:24).

For Costa Mesa’s girls, sophomores Kyla Flores, Jasmin Day and

Emily Cotton were the Mustangs’ only varsity competitors, while the

Mesa boys were led by sophomores Luis Genis and Mitch Friedmann. Rick

Olguin showed promise in the freshman race, Coach Joe Busi said.