Area runners shine in finals

Chris Yemma

Five individual runners and one team from the Newport-Mesa area ran

well enough in the CIF Southern Section finals at Mt. San Antonio

College Saturday to qualify for the CIF State cross country

championships next Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno.

The five individuals -- the most qualifiers in one year from the

Newport-Mesa area in recent memory -- are Costa Mesa’s Jasmine Day

and Kyla Flores, Estancia’s Ernie Castaneda, Sage Hill’s Katie McKeon

and Newport Harbor’s Whitney Blue.

The Corona del Mar girls team also qualified for the state meet,

placing first in the CIF Southern Section Division III race at Mt.

SAC.

Sage Hill will be sending a competitor to state for the first time

in the school’s history. McKeon finished fourth overall in Saturday’s

Division V race in 19 minutes, 19 seconds to qualify for the state

meet.

McKeon improved her time from the preliminaries Nov. 13 on the

same course by almost 40 seconds.

“I think being in the [finals] meet -- a highly competitive

environment -- she really stepped it up,” Sage Coach Nate Miller

said. “She was running with a pack of six girls almost the entire

race.”

Miller said he thinks McKeon has a good chance to finish in the

top 15 at state.

Estancia’s Castaneda finished ninth overall in the Division III

race, running the course in 15:36, a personal record for the junior.

Estancia Coach Charlie Appell said Castaneda has been improving every

week, but he could face some stiff competition in Fresno.

“Just because he did well here, doesn’t necessarily mean he will

at state,” Appell said. “Division III in the Southern Section is not

as strong as others.”

Mesa’s top two runners, Day (18:41) and Flores (18:52), finished first and second, respectively, for the Mustangs, and fifth and ninth

overall in Division III. The Mesa team finished in eighth place, just

missing the cutoff.

“We had a great day,” Costa Mesa Coach Joe Busi said. “If you do

some number crunching and compare with last week’s results, we should

have finished 10 or 11.”

Flores finished in ninth for the second-consecutive week, but this

time it was against tougher competition. Busi said he was hoping his

two runners would finish in the top 10 at the state meet.