Kay owns best, girls aim for state

The sixth year plans to be Newport Harbor High Coach Nowell Kay’s best.

Count on it he said of this boys’ cross country season.

The top five runners return, adding up to what should be a successful season. Kay’s seen the girls’ team dominate, with back-to-back runner-up finishes at the CIF State championships, since he took over the boys.

The last time the boys made it to state he said was in 1998, too long of a drought. This year the goal is reaching Fresno’s Woodward Park and watch his runners compete at state instead of the girls.

The girls will make another run to state.

“We’re definitely almost as good as last year,” said Eric Tweit, who’s in his 18th year as the head girls’ coach. “We had success [last year] because we had good runners.”

This year shouldn’t be any different, despite losing the top two girls to graduation.

For the boys, this year will be different. Already, they’ve shown that with a third-place finish overall in Division II at the Laguna Hills Invitational Saturday.

Last year, the Sailors spent most of the time learning to run in a pack and a new league, the Sunset League. Now the gap between first and the last runner is closing. Thirty-seconds between the two, no more, no less.

Rex Nelson is No. 1, followed by Mike Puncel, two seniors who are as neck to neck as two giraffes eating leaves off a tree. The duo finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in league last year, when it knew Newport Harbor was nowhere close to competing with the league’s top horses, league champ Esperanza, Edison and Fountain Valley.

That’s not going to be the case this year.

“I think we have a chance of winning league,” said Kay of his Division II team, which placed third in a league featuring four Division I programs.

The fear is gone despite not qualifying for the section finals. Kay, a longtime assistant before assuming the head duties, likes the balance. No one is blazing fast. No superstar recording times under 15 minutes.

“But what we do have are five guys,” Kay said.

Rounding the top five are juniors Jake Dawson, Michael Taylor and Scott Figueroa. One runner to watch out for is senior Murphy Hitchcock, a top-five caliber runner the previous two years.

“He was in summer school at Stanford,” said Kay of Hitchcock, who missed the 45-mile per week summer running sessions with the team. “He ran up there on his own, but it’s different when you’re running by yourself. He’s probably not in the shape the others guys are in right now. I expect him to be pushing ahead at the end of the year.”

Tweit expects the same for his girls.

The start of the season begins in the postseason for Newport Harbor. The Sailors are in the ultra competitive Sunset League, where Fountain Valley and Esperanza rank third and sixth, respectively, in the CIF Southern Section Division I preseason poll.

Newport Harbor, No. 7 in Division II, is dealing without having Melissa Mead (Iona College) and Taylor Bryson (UC Berkeley). The two finished with the 17th and 33rd fastest times at state, the team’s best results. Stepping in are senior Sophia Ditty and junior Desiree Alexander, who followed at 41st and 44th places.

Also back is junior Erica Pearson, who was hampered last year with shin splint problems. Two years ago as a freshman, she contributed to the Sailors section title and second-place finish.

“She had a great summer,” said Tweit of Pearson, who will be the No. 3 runner in front of seniors Jennifer Cain and Kelly DeYoung. “We need them to move up. Ditty realizes how good she can be. As a freshman, I didn’t think she would turn out to what she is now. Jennifer is extremely motivated. Sometimes we have to calm her down because she’ll over do it.”

Why not?

Kay’s expecting his boys to over do it this year.