Boys track and field: McMillen rounding into shape

Barry Faulkner

WALNUT - Newport Harbor High junior Chris McMillen advanced to the

CIF Southern Section Division II boys track and field finals by posting

the seventh-best time in the 1,600 meters at Friday night’s Division II

preliminaries at Mt. San Antonio College.

Imagine what he could do if he trained.

“I haven’t really been training at all,” said McMillen, who last week won

the Sea View League 1,600 in 4:25.31, shaving two seconds off his

previous best.

Friday, he finished second in his heat with a time of 4:25.88, to become

one of several Sailors bound for Saturday’s Division II Finals at

Cerritos College.

“His quality (training) days have been his races,” said Newport boys

coach Bim Barry, who had to do without McMillen for most of the regular

season, due to mononucleosis.

“It’s amazing what he’s been able to do the last two weeks without very

much training. He’s still not himself yet, so we’re hoping he will get a

little stronger by next Saturday.”

Newport senior standout Trevor Jones should be plenty strong for the

finals, after qualifying in his three individual events and anchoring the

1,600 relay team to the fastest time (3:21.1).

The UCLA-bound hurdles star, who has yet to win a Southern Section title,

qualified first in the 300 intermediate hurdles (37.75) and had the

third-fastest time among qualifiers in the 110 high hurdles (14.57).

Jones won both his hurdles heats and was second in his heat of the 100. A

timing system malfunction had him last in his 100 heat with a time of

11.66, which would not have been good enough to qualify. Barry, however,

said the error would be corrected and Jones would take his place in the

100 final at Cerritos College.

Junior John Peschelt, the two-time Sea View League high jump champion,

overcame a disappointing showing in that event to qualify third in the

800. The Sea View 800 champion won his heat in 1:57.63, an effort from

which he needed several minutes to recover.

Peschelt joined Jones, as well as juniors Dan Moyer and Richard Weber on

the 1,600 relay quartet.

Moyer, however, was not without individual glory. He finished second in

his 300 hurdles heat and advanced to the finals with the eighth-best

clocking (39.42).

“Dan Moyer is a great story this year,” Barry said. “He’s worked very

hard.”

Newport hurdles coach Nowell Kay said Moyer had been discouraged early in

the season, having consistently been pounded in practice by his talented

teammate Jones.

“I think the turning point in his season was the Orange County

Championships,” Kay said of Moyer. “He finished fifth and it really

helped his confidence. He got depressed running against Trevor in

practice, but that gave him perspective about how good he was compared to

everyone else.”

Jones, third in the Division II 300 hurdles finals as a junior, said

Friday was all about qualifying. But he couldn’t turn off his competitive

juices in the 300 hurdles, pushing to the finish even though he had his

heat well in hand.

“I can’t justify not running, because I’m here to race,” Jones said.

Among those who competed, but failed to advance were Moyer (110 hurdles),

senior Doug Dukes (1,600), shot putters Nathan Caldwell and Rion

McKinney, Ryan Brill in the triple jump and the Tars’ 400 relay quartet.