DAILY PILOT MALE ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:

Cecil Whiteside knew the novice had worn off discus throwing when he encountered his first slump as a freshman last season.

Then, he said, it became just like any other sport.

But Newport Harbor High’s leading thrower isn’t like many other discus competitors.

Whiteside set a personal record Saturday at the Trabuco Hills Invitational when he hit 175 feet, nine inches to take first place. He’ll be competing this afternoon at the Arcadia Invitational.

Since the beginning of the season, Whiteside has been adding feet at a torrid pace. He started at about 135, and now Whiteside’s encroaching on a magic number: 186-11.

Darius Savage’s throw of 186-11 set the sophomore state record in 2004. Savage now competes in football and track and field at UCLA.

With so much early success, it’s getting more difficult for Whiteside to avoid comparisons to Savage. He wants to break the record, but the idea of possibly beating it has yet to sink in.

“I see him as being the greatest,” Whiteside said. “It’s kind of weird having me in that conversation.”

Newport Harbor throws coach Tony Ciarelli thinks the record is well within Whiteside’s grasp. Whiteside is hitting 180 feet in practice, and Ciarelli is just waiting for him to do it in competition. If he does it tonight at Arcadia, he’ll probably get a medal, Ciarelli said.

“Right now, Cecil’s kind of limitless,” Ciarelli said. “The way he’s throwing right now should take him all the way to the state meet, which gives him another four and a half weeks of practice.”

Whiteside would benefit from those extra weeks because throwing is such a detailed and technical sport. His season had an early ending last year when he faulted on his last throw at the CIF Southern Section preliminaries.

“It’s like martial arts,” Ciarelli said. “It’s just a movement you have to get good at. The more effectively you can transfer energy from your body into the implement, the farther it’s going to go. Right now, he’s hitting some of the positions, but overall, but he’s still a long way off in both events as far as how much energy he could be transferring into the device. Those are things he’s going to be able to overcome that will allow him to throw even farther than he’s throwing already.”

Whiteside also finished third in the shot put at Trabuco Hills, but he’s shown more promise with the discus, competing with teammates Nate Talbott and Brandon Kula in practice.

The group has the opportunity to practice with Nick Petrucci and Sam Lightbody, who are both internationally ranked throwes. Ciarelli, who is an Olympic-level weight-lifting coach, is working with Petrucci and Lightbody as they train for the Beijing Olympics.

“These guys get great exposure to world class athletes, how they train, how they look at the event,” Ciarelli said. “It’s really a great thing for my kids to experience that.”

SORAYA NADIA MCDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or soraya.mcdonald@latimes.com.