Blue blazes to first

Chris Yemma

After the Orange County championships Saturday morning, Newport

Harbor High girls cross country coach Eric Tweit said he now has to

reevaluate his team.

But he meant that in a good context.

That’s because his No. 1 runner, junior Whitney Blue, placed first

out of 102 runners from 15 schools in the girls varsity sweepstakes

race at Irvine Regional Park.

“She is further along than I expected,” Tweit said. “I knew she

would be in the top group, but it surprised me that her and the other

top runner [Rosary’s Shelby Buckley] put so much distance on

everyone.”

Blue, this week’s Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, posted a time

of 17:07 in the three-mile, hilly course, and just barely nudged out

Buckley by two seconds for the top spot.

Toward the end of the race it was just Blue and Buckley dueling it

out, going neck and neck to the finish line, while putting a sizable

gap on the rest of the competition.

“This was one of my biggest goals this season,” Blue said. “It was

a full battle near the end with that girl from Rosary, but I was just

thinking, how bad do I want it?”

Apparently, she wanted it bad enough, leaving Woodbridge’s top

runner, Jesse Babcock, in the dust by nearly a full minute. Blue lost

to Babcock a few weeks earlier at the Woodbridge invitational.

“I didn’t know she could run this fast yet,” Tweit said. “We have

to build off this. There’s still lots to do -- she’s only a junior.”

Blue has only lost one meet this year -- the Woodbridge

invitational, placing 10th overall, but competing against some of the

top runners in the state.

After that meet, she said she wanted to win every race from here

on out.

Winning the sweepstakes race at the Orange County championships

definitely goes a long way in achieving that goal.

But an even bigger task lies ahead next Saturday -- the Mt. Sac

invitational. Blue said she wasn’t mentally prepared for Mt. SAC last

season, which caused her to perform not as well as expected.

But this year she said she will be ready.

“I’m ready to try it again,” Blue said late last week. “I hope our

team places well and I hope I do really well individually.”

Despite Blue’s first-place finish, the Newport team placed 14th in

the sweepstakes with 291 points. Fountain Valley was first with 64

points and Edison, Brea, Mater Dei and Dana Hills rounded out the top

five.

Lauren Maddox was the second finisher for Newport, coming in 28th

overall with a time of 18:41. Zuzana Bernard, Taylor Bryson and

Caitlin Mai were the rest of the Sailors’ top five, with times of

19:51, 19:57 and 20:16, respectively.

The Corona del Mar High girls team placed eighth in the same race.

Allison Damon (13th, 18:12), Hillary May (26th, 18:38), Annie St.

Geme (56th, 19:09) and Christie St. Geme (58th, 19:13) were the top five finishers for the Sea Kings.