Sailors put end to nine-year drought

WALNUT — Another cause for celebration for the Newport Harbor High boys’ cross country team, but it took a backseat with one of its stars falling.

Mike Puncel fell close to the finish line before the Sailors learned they finished in second place behind Loyola of Los Angeles in the CIF Southern Section Division II championships Saturday.

The senior got back up after 20 or so seconds and eventually finished the three-mile race on the arduous Mt. San Antonio College course in Walnut. But Coach Nowell Kay said Puncel should run when Newport Harbor competes in its first state event since 1998.

The state finals are Saturday at Fresno’s Woodward Park, where another showdown between No. 1-ranked Loyola and No. 2 Newport Harbor will take place. Loyola easily won the first round, 55-119.

“We’re happy we finally made it to state, but we’re hoping Puncel is all right,” said Kay, who’s in his sixth year as the boys’ head coach. “They took him to the hospital and he just needed some fluids. His legs just gave out. He couldn’t hold anything down. [At first] we don’t know whether it was dehydration, or just all the adrenaline coming from racing at a big meet.”

This event was crucial for the Sailors, as it was for Corona del Mar and Sage Hill School in their respective divisions. CdM advanced out of Division III by placing sixth and Sage Hill was fifth in Division V.

Unlike their Newport-Mesa counterparts, Newport Harbor was racing for supremacy. The Sailors got their first shot at Loyola. No different heat like in last week’s preliminaries, all together this time.

Before the meet, Puncel was fired up as were the rest of his teammates. The Sailors fought to the end and Puncel did whatever to help, rising after falling to finish 37th in 16 minutes.

Puncel lost a lot of time with the spill as he’s usually in close range to the Sailors’ top runner, senior Rex Nelson. But by the time Nelson finished at 15:20 for eighth place, Loyola had runners take third and fourth, and then 15th and 16th before another Sailor crossed the finish line, allowing the Cubs to wrap up the title en route to going into the record books.

Loyola finished with a blistering team time of 77 minutes, 30 seconds, making it one of seven boys’ teams going under 78 minutes, a Mt. SAC record. The Sailors finished almost two minutes behind.

But they received a lift from junior Michael Taylor (31st, 15:53), back after sitting out the prelims with a nagging injury, and senior Murphy Hitchcock (34th, 15:59). The next two finishers were Puncel and junior Jake Dawson (49th, 16:09).

“I would’ve been totally happy with being runner-up after what happened [to Puncel] because [Loyola] ran really well,” Kay said. “I’m really happy for the guys and it’s really gratifying to get the team back to state. We just need to close the gap between us and Loyola, and you have to add Woodcreek [of Roseville] into the picture because [the school is] good on the state meet course.

“This is the first time since 1997 that the boys are joining the girls at state.”

CdM and Sage Hill both have also played second fiddle to their girls’ teams recently.

The Sea Kings improved on their prelim finish of a week ago with the help of Matt Haug again. The junior ran at the No. 5 spot during CdM’s Division III race. Senior Thomas Dialynas, the top runner, now feels confident CdM has found its fifth runner.

“This guy moves up to varsity and he gets [personal-bests] in back-to-back meets at Mt. SAC, how cool is that?” said Dialynas, who finished eighth at 15:36, followed by senior John Leonard (29th, 16:04), senior Richard DeMarco (32nd, 16:06), sophomore Sebastien Welch (59th, 16:47) and Haug (62nd, 16:54).

“We finished eighth last week, sixth this week, we were 40 seconds away from third place, so if we each cut eight to 10 seconds off we’ll be in the hunt for a good state finish.”

Sage Hill is just glad it is back at state after its last appearance two years ago.

Leading the way were seniors Sean McElroy (eighth, 16:14) and Connor Rose (11th, 16:25) as the Lightning recorded their best section finish. The three other runners scoring for Sage Hill were sophomore Lion Wintemute (23rd, 16:51), junior Kyle Simon (50th, 17:46) and sophomore Alex Jimenez (77th, 18:37).

“We were more than two minutes faster on this course compared to last week,” Sage Hill Coach Nate Miller said.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.