Bearing the curve

COSTA MESA — For Costa Mesa High sprinter Teagan LaBare, going long has its advantages.

LaBare used to hold her nose when it came to middle distance races the way anyone with half a sense of smell would avoid whiffing Limberger cheese.

But LaBare took first place Thursday, not only in her beloved 100 meters, but also the 200 meters at the Orange Coast League championships, to help the Mustang girls win their third straight league title.

LaBare also ran the last 400 meters of the 1,600 meter-relay in 59.4 seconds, securing a win after Ally Krikorian overtook Laguna Beach’s Nikki Clark coming around the last curve on the third leg of the race.

Clark was running at least four strides ahead of Krikorian on the back straight-away, but Krikorian caught her in time to give LaBare a head start.

Costa Mesa coaches Diane Bjelland and Kevin Palmer had to market the 1,600 meters to LaBare, a junior.

“It’ll make you better in the 200,” they said.

So she did it, though at the beginning of the season, LaBare wasn’t feeling much love for the 200, either. Palmer had to teach her how to run curves. She had to learn to tilt her body and her feet into the turn instead of running in a straight line, and open her stride through the curve.

“It’s amazing how different it is,” LaBare said. “I used to dread the 200 because I was bad at it. I didn’t like it. It was really hard for me. But now I know how to run it.”

Palmer estimated she shaved at least two seconds off her time from the beginning of the season.

“It defeats the purpose if you’re not running with the curve,” Palmer said. “It slows you down.”

In the mean time, it was encouraging to LaBare to see her times drop in her longer races since she hit a plateau in the 100 meters.

“You put out everything at practice and you get your best competition out there,” LaBare said, motioning toward the track. “I feel like once I go to CIF I’ll definitely have more competition to play with.”

The Costa Mesa girls swept the relay events, winning the 400-meter relay, where LaBare could go back to running the straightaways she prefers.

Junior Cheyenne Lopez took first place in the shot put and discus throw, and Tatiana Williams took first in the triple jump. All the first-place finishers advance to CIF Southern Section Division III preliminaries May 10.

The Costa Mesa boys took second to Laguna Beach for the second straight year, but the real surprise of the day came from Estancia’s Fernando Orozco, who won the 1,600 meters with a time of 4:25.34.

Neither Orozco nor Estancia coach Charlie Appell expected Orozco to win Thursday.

Orozco just had too many distractions, Appell said, between his school work and taking care of his younger nieces and nephews. Add a piecemeal practice schedule and hit-and-miss opportunities for speed work into the equation, and Orozco said he fully expected Laguna Beach’s Yann Panassie to beat him.

“I was going for first, but I didn’t know I was going to get it,” Orozco said. “It was all mental. This race was all mental for me. I just had to keep with it and stay with him.”

Costa Mesa junior Antwon Byrd easily won both the 100 and 200 meters and the Mustang boys swept the relays as well, their only victories of the day.

Orange Coast League Finals

Girls

1. Costa Mesa 182; 2. Laguna Beach 142; 3. Calvary Chapel 132; 4. Estancia 27

100 – 1. T. LaBare (CM), 13.26; 2. Kiser (CC), 13.87; 3. Rosen (CC), 13.99.

200 – 1. T. LaBare (CM), 27.26; 2. Good Man (LB), 28.52; 3. B. LaBare (CM), 28.88.

400 – 1. Good Man (LB), 1:01.66; 2. Karkut (CC), 1:02.40; 3. B. LaBare (CM), 1:02.74.

800 – 1. VanCott (CC), 2:25.68; 2. Newton-Neal (LB), 2:26.94; 3. Strickland (LB), 2:29.88.

1,600 – 1. VanCott (CC), 5:16.97; 2. Newton-Neal (LB), 5:31.58; 3. Yamasaki (LB), 5:34.73.

3,200 – 1. VanCott (CC), 12:09.86; 2. Strodel (CM), 12.27.46; 3. Yamasaki (LB), 12:34.08.

100 H – 1. Karkut (CC), 17.09; 2. Bjelland (CM), 17.80; 3. Clark (LB), 17.89.

300 H – 1. Karkut (CC), 48.16; 2. Thomas (E), 48.64; 3. Clark (LB, 48.75.

400 relay – 1. Costa Mesa (B. LaBare, T. LaBare, Krikorian, Bjelland), 52.21; 2. Calvary Chapel, 53.43; 3. Laguna Beach, 54.12; 4. Estancia, 56.73.

1,600 relay – 1. Costa Mesa (McNulty, B. LaBare, Krikorian, T. LaBare), 4:13.94; 2. Laguna Beach, 4:15.28; 3. Calvary Chapel, 4:28.83; 4. Estancia, 4:39.12.

HJ – 1. Thomas (LB), 4-10; 2. Daley (CM), 4-8; 3. Barton (LB), 4-8.

LJ – 1. Pritchett (CC), 15-3 1/2 ; 2. Newton-Neal (LB), 15-3 1/4 ; 3. Williams (CM), 15-3.

TJ – 1. Williams (CM), 34-5 1/2 ; 2. Thomas (LB), 31-8; 3. Bjelland (CM), 31-4 1/2 .

PV – 1. Swank (CC), 7-6; 2. Krikorian (CM), 7-0; 3. Pineda (CC), 6-6.

SP – 1. Lopez (CM), 32-9 1/2 ; 2. Ieremia (CM), 31-5 1/4 ; 3. Leatigaga (CM), 30-1 1/2 .

DT – 1. Lopez (CM), 113-5; 2. Ieremia (CM), 103-7; 3. Leatigaga (CM), 88-5.

Orange Coast League Finals

Boys

1. Laguna Beach 218; 2. Costa Mesa 108; 3. Calvary Chapel 102; 4. Estancia 47

100 – 1. Byrd (CM), 11.42; 2. De La Mater (CM), 11.99; 3. Smith (LB), 12.19.

200 – 1. Byrd (CM), 23.30; 2. Graham (LB), 24.09; 3. Gudino (E), 24.27.

400 – 1. Harris (LB), 52.97; 2. Mendoza (CM), 53.17; 3. Matsuda (CC), 53.99.

800 – 1. Panassie (LB), 2:02.79; 2. Orozco (E), 2:03.24; 3. Rahaeuser (CC), 2:03.67.

1,600 – 1. Orozco (E), 4:25.34; 2. Panassie (LB), 4:26.85; 3. Neev (LB), 4:31.50.

3,200 – 1. Neev (LB), 10:02.61; 2. Finnerty (LB), 10:06.81; 3. Hofmeister (LB), 10:08.73.

110 HH – 1. Panassie (LB), 17.34; 2. Eaton (LB), 17.51; 3. Ehlers (CC), 17.86.

300 IH – 1. Eaton (LB), 43.19; 2. Yasuda (CM), 43.53; 3. Ehlers (CC), 46.03.

400 relay – 1. Costa Mesa (Byrd, Astorino, De La Mater, Galvin), 45.34; 2. Laguna Beach, 45.88; 3. Calvary Chapel, 47.33; 4. Estancia, 47.38.

1,600 relay – 1. Costa Mesa (Byrd, Astorino, Brunette, Mendoza), 3:36.65; 2. Laguna Beach, 3:37.87; 3. Calvary Chapel, 3:38.40; 4. Estancia, 3:40.27.

HJ – 1. Shelly (CC), 5-10; 2. Karam (LB), 5-10; 3. Darnell (LB), 5-10.

LJ – 1. Doyle (CC) 19-9; 2. Yasuda (CM), 19-7 1/4 ; 3. Linkletter (LB), 19-3 1/2 .

TJ – 1. Jones (LB), 39-4; 2. Masukawa (LB), 38-7 1/2 ; 3. Linkletter (LB), 38-3.

PV – 1. Shelley (CC), 10-0; 2. Piper (CC), 9-6.

SP – 1. McMullin (LB), 43-5 1/4 ; 2. S. Guzowski (CM), 41-9 1/2 ; 3. T. Guzowski (CM) 40-7 1/2 .

DT – 1. McPhie (CC), 127-11; 2. McMullin (LB), 113-11; 3. T. Guzowski (CM), 112-9.

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