Blue settles for fourth

Chris Yemma

After coming off a first-place finish last week at the Orange County

championships, Newport Harbor High cross country runner Whitney Blue

came in to Saturday’s competition at the Mt. San Antonio College

cross country invitational psyched up.

She wanted to do better than last year’s performance at Mt. SAC,

where she said she wasn’t mentally prepared.

On Saturday, she improved dramatically, placing fourth overall in

the girls varsity sweepstakes race with a time of 18 minutes, 15

seconds, competing against 120 runners from 18 schools. But despite

the improvement, her performance wasn’t up to her standards.

“I didn’t have it today,” Blue said. “I didn’t feel well before

the race and I kind of psyched myself out. I also wanted to save it

more for CIF [Southern Section Division II and Sea View League]

finals.”

Saving it for the postseason has become a common theme for local

schools at the Mt. SAC invitational. Both Newport boys coach Nowell

Kay and girls coach Eric Tweit said they look at Mt. SAC as a warmup

for what’s to come in a few weeks.

“Most teams [Saturday] ... everybody’s trying to be cautious for

the finals,” Tweit said. “This is more of an introduction.”

Tweit said he wasn’t even sure if his girls team would make it

into the postseason. Regardless, he still wanted to be cautious and

said he didn’t want Blue running by herself in three weeks.

The Sailors placed 16th in the girls sweepstakes race with 330

points. Murrieta Valley was first with 122. Newport Harbor sophomore

Lauren Maddox finished 21st with a time of 19:02. Sophomore Taylor

Bryson (86th in 20:38), sophomore Zuzana Bernard (101st in 21:01) and

senior Jackie Belida (118th in 23:49) also scored for Newport Harbor.

The Newport Harbor boys, which had numerous runners slowed by

illness during the week of preparation, placed fifth with 208 points.

Sea View Legaue rival Laguna Hills won with 96 points.

“It has been that kind of week for us,” Kay said. “We’ve been

fighting off colds, but it was a good race. It was a good practice

run for CIF.

“Fifth place is a decent finish for us being sick.”

The Tars’ usual top runner, senior Nick St. Andre, dealt with a

cold but still came in third for Newport and 38th overall in 17:04.

Senior Martin Bernard paced the Sailors by finishing 13th in 16:26.

Junior Kenny Rakestraw was 27th with a time of 16:37 while junior

Wesley Urtusuastegui (48th in 17:17) and sophomore Francisco Avonce

(96th in 18:01) were the fourth and fifth finishers, respectively,

for the Sailors.

“Nick [St. Andre] ran OK for being sick,” Kay said. “Our sophomore

Francisco [Avonce] also ran well and this was his first time on this

course. It was a good day for them to familiarize themselves with

this course.”

For the Newport boys team, this was back-to-back fifth-place

finishes at major invitationals. Last week, St. Andre and Rakestraw

led the team to fifth in Division II at the Orange County

championships.