Williamson sets Sage record, finishes sixth

IRVINE — Crowded from the start.

Breaking out from a throng of runners created problems. Some fell. Others got cut off during the 27th annual Woodbridge Cross Country Classic.

Sage Hill School’s Cait Williamson wouldn’t allow any of that to happen to her on Saturday.

The only cutting she did involved her time. The junior set another school record with a time of 18 minutes, 28 seconds resulting in a sixth-place showing in the girls’ varsity race in the white division.

Not bad for someone not knowing what to expect at the chaotic starting line.

“There are just so many people out there,” she said of her event, equivalent to Division IV, featuring 203 competitors. “I was able to get out pretty well. I didn’t have any problems.”

Two of her teammates weren’t so fortunate during the all-day invitational, which also included locals Newport Harbor and Costa Mesa, and 200-plus schools, including some of the premier ones in the CIF Southern Section.

The Newport Harbor boys’ team showed it just might be one of those elite squads this year. The Sailors finished fourth in the sweepstakes race, one point behind Clovis East Saturday night. Murietta Valley won the race and University City’s Max Fleet was the overall winner in 14:17.

The Sailors’ performance — Rex Nelxon (29th in 15:59), Mike Puncel (32nd in 15:01), Jake Dawson (33rd in 15:02), Michael Taylor (62nd in 15:29), Alex Crawford (74th in 15:36) — impressed Coach Nowell Kay, who’s been involved with the program since 1990.

“It’s early in the season, I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” Kay said. “But this is by far the best performance we’ve had as a team since I’ve been at Newport.”

The Sailors also had a solid outing from Murphy Hitchock, who ran in the senior boys’ Division II race and finished eighth in 15:35.

Earlier in the day, Williamson, a fifth-place finisher at the Division V section finals last year, began to embark on slashing her previous best by 27 seconds, two of her teammates were sidetracked on the fast course.

Someone fell right in front of Jackie Dion and Katie McKeon. Like McKeon, a point guard, needed to prove she could jump over someone in order to run.

Bad ankle and all, McKeon avoided tripping over the runner. All of this in the senior’s season debut after seriously injuring her right ankle during a summer league basketball game.

“This is the first week that I’ve done all the [running] workouts,” said McKeon after finishing at 20:50 for 98th, followed by Jackie Dion (21:34, 126th) and Megan Kim (23:34, 176th). “It was a nice first race. I was hoping to do better. Cait did amazing. It’s going to be a great season.”

It appears that way, despite the Lightning, ranked No. 3 in Division V, not running at full strength. They didn’t score as a team because Coach Nate Miller said Aiyana Bobrownicki is out with Achilles tendonitis and a couple of other runners were taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Overall, he was pleased with the girls, who won the Academy League and went on to place fourth at section and seventh at state last season.

Two of his senior boys competed in the sweepstakes race, the top event, held at night. Connor Rose finished 82nd in 15:39 and Sean McElroy was 90th in 15:49. Rose’s time broke the school record for the three-mile distance. His time of 15:51 at last year’s Woodbridge Invitational had been the standard.

“It’s a very fast race, but they have proven themselves over the last three years,” said Miller of Rose and McElroy, who took fifth and 16th, respectively, at the section finals last year, with Rose advancing to state and finishing in the top 10.

Newport Harbor’s girls, minus their top runner Sophia Ditty (ill), finished third in the gold division, considered Division II. Junior Erica Pearson finished second in 18:09. Desiree Alexander (19:22), Tori Sarris (19:23), Kelly DeYoung, Ava Nelson (19:49), Patty Moddelmog (19:50) and Coleen Mead (19:51) also competed.

For the second straight invitational, Costa Mesa was without its top girl, Arlene Sanchez.

A surprise birthday party by her mom took the senior away to Arizona for the weekend.

“She thought she was going to run until Friday’s news,” said Coach Mike Sciacca of the track and field distance runner, who decided to come out for cross country in her final year. “She can be running CIF qualifying times right now, or just solid times. We need her.”

Only five girls ran. Three in the white division class races and two in the varsity. Alyssa Nunez posted the best mark (22:32, 152nd) out of the Mustangs. Cheyenne Lopez came in at 22:57, knocking off about three minutes off last week’s time at the Laguna Hills Invitational. Sciacca dug the improvement.

Also the one Melissa Townsend showed in the freshmen race. In her second varsity event, Townsend recorded a time of 22:34 for 57th place.

Townsend, who last week forgot to kick at the end, was pushed. With the help of Irvin Dorantes, who steps away from the course shouted words of encouragement.

This is before Dorantes took a bad spill at the end of his boys’ sophomore race, where he barely crossed the finish line, crashing as he rolled an ankle.

Someone pulled Dorantes aside, taking his bib after finishing in 19:07, not the best mark for the Mustangs. That belonged to sophomore James Stucker, whose 17:18 was good for 36th, but it didn’t matter to Dorantes.

“I was just happy that I finished the race,” he said, despite leaving Irvine with an ice bag wrapped around the ankle.