No mind games for Costa Mesa champions

COSTA MESA — As they competed in the Orange Coast League track and field finals Thursday, advancing to the CIF Division III Southern Section meet was one of many things on students’ minds.

For students at Costa Mesa and Estancia high schools, time was split this week between concentrating on qualifying for the CIF meet and doing well on California state tests.

As they meandered through the infield at Orange Coast College, two Estancia girls murmured about finals when they weren’t cheering on their teammates.

Now a junior at Estancia, Eunice Rodriguez is an old hand when it comes to dealing with the stress of this week. But, she said, that doesn’t make it much easier.

“It’s hard because you have to concentrate on the race and you have to concentrate on the test,” Rodriguez said. “It makes it go a little bit faster because you’re like, ‘OK, I need to push it more.’ ”

Individual first-place finishers automatically advance to the CIF meet, and second-place finishers can advance if they beat a qualifying time or score.

The Costa Mesa girls’ team finished first with 199 points, repeating last year’s league championship, as the Mustangs won the Golden West League last year. Laguna Beach followed with 142, then Calvary Chapel with 108, and Estancia had 20 points.

On the boys’ side, Laguna Beach won with 166 points, and Costa Mesa followed with 120, then Estancia with 103, and Calvary Chapel with 87.

The abnormally blustery winds seemed to be carrying away the remainder of spring as the school year continues to wind down. Even the most disciplined of athletes get somewhat distracted as finals, graduation and summer draw closer.

“To keep the kids focused this time of year is the hardest thing,” Costa Mesa Coach Diane Bjelland said.

Costa Mesa’s Antwon Byrd, who won the boys’ 100-meter event, will start practicing soon for football. Ryan Whites, a senior at Estancia, won the 300 and the 110 hurdles, but his mind wanders to his future at UC Irvine, where he’ll run track and study English in the fall.

The difference between first and second for Shelby Herbel, who was first in the 100 intermediate hurdles, was focus, Bjelland said. Herbel had finished second to Calvary’s Kathryn Karkut in two prior races, but won Thursday with a time of 17.61.

“She’s really worked hard this year on three-stepping and just looked fantastic and did a great job,” Bjelland said. “She did a good job in a very, very strong field.”

But one of the most dramatic finishes for Costa Mesa was an early event, the boys’ 400 relay.

Asa Hawks was Costa Mesa’s last runner, and was well behind his competitor from Laguna Beach, but spurted ahead to catch up, and won the race by an eight hundredths of a second.

Antwon Byrd, Manuel Gomez, and Steven Nguyen were the other relay runners.

As it turned out, the strong headwinds may have helped Costa Mesa.

“A few weeks ago, we trained in the wind when we had a sandstorm at our track,” Bjelland said. “But the kids worked out hard, and all that blowing sand was good for them because they realized ‘this isn’t that bad.’ ”

Estancia’s Fernando Orozco won the boys’ 1600, and Jeu Ieramia of Costa Mesa won the girls’ discus throw.

Costa Mesa’s relay team of Bree LaBare, Natalie Argueta, Ally Krikorian, and Emily Cotton, won the girls’ 400 relay.

may be reached at (714) 966-4613.