Finals not top desire

Chris Yemma

When the talent includes athletes such as the nation’s best pole

vaulter and the county’s best long distance runner, seeking a league

title isn’t necessarily the No. 1 goal.

“Don’t get me wrong, I would love to win a [Sea View League]

title,” Newport Harbor High girls track and field coach Eric Tweit

said. “But it’s not as important as some of our girls going on to CIF

and state.”

But for the Newport athletes who aren’t defending state pole vault

champion Allison Stokke, or Orange County cross country and

3,200-meter champion Whitney Blue, the league preliminaries Tuesday

at Irvine High, with the upcoming finals Friday, provided, and will

showcase, a more attainable goal.

Leading the way at Tuesday’s preliminaries was sophomore Jessica

Robson, who qualified with a third-place time of 16.16 seconds in the

100-meter hurdles.

The hurdles present Robson a fourth jump-related event, as she

will also be competing in the long, triple and high jumps Friday.

Field event preliminaries and finals are held Friday, while no

preliminaries are held for the 1,600 and 3,200.

Robson will be joined in the 100 hurdles by teammate Laura

Clayton, who finished Tuesday in 17.68, good for the sixth spot of

eight qualifiers.

Rounding out the Newport hurdlers were Cassidy Gayner and Lauren

Cohen, finishing second and fifth, respectively, in the 300 hurdles.

“In the hurdles, it went really well for us,” Tweit said. “That

was Robson’s best race this year. And it was also a great job by

[Clayton], who also put in her fastest race.”

Friday’s 800 final will field a duo of Newport runners, as Megan

Randall clocked in at 2:22 for sixth in the prelims and Taylor Bryson

grabbed the eighth spot in 2:41.

Alexis Conley clinched seventh in the 100 with a 13:53 clocking,

while teammate Hannah Bearden claimed the final spot in 13.75 to

headline the Newport sprinters.

“It was a really good meet,” Tweit said. “We got more than we

thought we would. We weren’t sure we would qualify two in the hurdle

races, so that was huge.”

Finals are scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Irvine High

with the last event scheduled at 9:25 p.m.