Locals share wealth

Chris Yemma

Two distance runners, a pole vaulter and a team topped the girls

Newport-Mesa list at Saturday’s Orange County track and field

championships at Trabuco Hills High.

Holding the county’s cross country title, garnered in the fall,

Newport Harbor’s Whitney Blue became the county’s best 3,200-meter

runner Saturday, while Corona del Mar’s Annie St. Geme defended her

1,600 title in record-breaking fashion to lead the CdM girls to a

third-place finish, and Newport’s Allison Stokke officially became

the county’s best pole vaulter.

Blue, who dropped out of the 1,600 after getting her foot stepped

on in the early stage of the race, rallied later in the day to win

the 3,200 in a meet-record 10:44.74, topping the previous record of

10:47.93 set in 2002 by Corona del Mar’s Julie Allen.

St. Geme clocked in at 4:52.82 in the 1,600 for a meet record and

finished second in the 800 to earn Girls Distance Runner Athlete of

the Meet for the second straight year, while Stokke won the pole

vault in another meet record, 13 feet.

Corona del Mar, collecting 49 points, was edged by Aliso Niguel

(58 points) and Kennedy (52) for the county’s team title.

“We’ll live with it,” said Sea Kings’ Coach Bill Sumner, who was

hoping for his girls to finish first. “It was one of those things

that at the end of the meet you look back and say, ‘if we would have

done this and done that, things would have gone a bit differently’.

But, we’re happy with this finish.”

CdM was in second heading into the last event -- the 1,600 relay

-- needing a win and an Aliso Niguel fourth-place finish for the

county title, but CdM finished fifth in the event and Aliso took

third.

The Sea Kings were paced throughout the day, in addition to St.

Geme, by Hilary May (fifth in the 1,600, fourth in the 800) and

Melissa Swigert (second in the 200, fourth in the 400).

Newport’s Blue, who had the state’s fourth-best time at the CIF

State cross country championships in the fall, described her race

Saturday as her best this year.

“It was definitely the most difficult,” said Blue, who held a lead

the entire race forcing her create her own pace. “It makes it a lot

harder trying to pace yourself knowing someone’s right behind you. I

was just trying to keep my title going from cross country.”

Stokke’s 13-0 clearance was 5 1/2 inches off her best, set at the

Surf City invitational earlier this year which is currently the

national outdoor sophomore record. Stokke tried three unsuccessful

attempts at 13-7 Saturday, but she said she remains confident she

will be able to break the national outdoor high school record of 13-8

1/2 this year.

She said she was still pleased with her result Saturday, though.

“This was exciting because last year I really didn’t do so well,”

she said. “So this year it’s nice to actually have [the county

title].”

CdM’s Kelly Morgan finished fifth in the 400, while Tiffany Liu

finished fifth in the long jump, and Sage Hill’s Laura Gordon was

fourth in the triple jump.