Track & Field: Hope springs forward for Newport Harbor

Hope Bender graduates from Newport Harbor High in a matter of months, which is good news for fans of the track and field program at rival Corona del Mar.

Bender never lost a race to the Sea Kings in four years of Battle of the Bay meets. Last month against CdM, she captured four events, the 200 meters, 400, 100 hurdles and long jump. The Sailors girls nearly upset CdM, losing by a single point, 64-63.

“I don’t mean to sound cocky or anything, but it’s kind of a cool thing,” said Bender, who won the varsity girls’ 200 meters all four years against CdM. “They’re our rivals, and to just come out and have that streak has been really cool for me.”

This year’s Battle of the Bay was Bender’s first meet of the season. In her second, last weekend at the Irvine Asics Invitational, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week was no less impressive.

She set the school record in the 100 hurdles, winning the event in 15.03 seconds to break Jessica Robson’s mark from 2007. Bender was second in the 200 in 25.75 seconds, and third in the 400 in a personal-best time of 58.36.

“This past weekend is probably the best meet I’ve ever had,” Bender said.

Call it a very strong start to the season for Bender, who has an engaging personality and smiles a lot. She said she doesn’t want to be known as that one athlete at a track meet who is mean or too serious.

The start to this season in particular has given Bender plenty of reason to flash those pearly whites. Earlier this week she committed to run track at UC Santa Barbara, where she will be a heptathlete, also competing in events like the high jump, shot put and javelin throw.

Bender never knew she would be running track growing up. As a youngster, when she was on a track she was racing motorcycles with her father, Steve, or riding on a horse in “jumpers” equestrian events.

Father and daughter would ride motocross all around Southern California. But when Hope got to Newport Harbor, she quickly realized that motorcycle racing isn’t exactly a high school sport.

“I was here, and I didn’t really have a sport to do,” she said. “I’d always been pretty fast growing up, just racing friends down the street or whatever. My friends and my mom [Lynn] were just like, ‘Go try track, just do the 100 and 200 and see how you like it.’ So I came out here and met Coach [Eric] Tweit, and I’ve been out here since then.”

Lynn, ran track growing up in Ohio. She was a three-sport athlete at Ohio Wesleyan University, also playing volleyball and basketball.

Now, Hope is the track stud in the family. She believes her background in motor sports has helped.

“Growing up with [motorcycles] definitely helped my running quite a bit, just in terms of my attitude, especially for hurdles,” she said. “I come into it kind of with more of an attack attitude, just because I’m so used to getting out fast and getting over the hurdles or jumps, whatever you want to call it.

“It also helped my start a lot. Motocross, everyone’s on a gate. You wait for the gate to drop, then it’s the first person to the first turn. It’s the equivalent of the gun in the [racing] blocks.”

That fast start has been symbolic for her season so far, as she has seemed to come out of nowhere. Part of the reason it seems that way has been bad luck. She did have a strong end to her sophomore season two years ago, winning the 400 meters at the Sunset League finals.

But prior to the track season last year, Bender said she went on a missions trip to India, and came back and got really sick. Then, midway through the season, she had to deal with a persistent knee injury. She failed to make CIF in any individual events, though she was part of the Sailors’ 4x400 relay that advanced to the CIF Southern Section Division 2 finals. That quartet also featured Paige Fults, Lauren Loucks and Natalie Ward, who is headed to the University of Notre Dame for soccer.

Still, the lack of individual success admittedly bothered Bender.

“It just fell apart for me,” she said. “It definitely has motivated me a lot for this season. I didn’t finish very strong last year, so I really wanted to come out strong this year and just maintain.”

Bender knows it’s a long season, which is why she said she might not run Saturday at the San Clemente Triton Invitational after tweaking her ankle in practice earlier this week. She wants to be healthy for next week, when the Sailors open league by playing host to a tough Los Alamitos team on Thursday before traveling to Huntington Beach High for the Beach Cities Invitational on Saturday. Los Alamitos also boasts a strong 400 runner, junior Ashley Willingham, who won league last year in the event.

It’s good that Bender wants to be a heptathlete, because she’s good at juggling things. She will be a pre-biology major at UCSB, and she works part-time at C’est Si Bon bakery in Newport Beach.

This track season should continue to be exciting for Bender, whose younger sister Faith is a sophomore at Harbor and a dancer. She is excited to run in the 4x400 relay again. This year it features CdM transfer Emma Kratzberg. Individually, Bender is close to breaking two more school records, in the 200 and 400. Both of those are held by Amy Burlingham (class of 2003), who went on to play college soccer at the University of Texas.

Burlingham’s records are a 57.83 in the 400 and a 25.44 in the 200. Bender showed last weekend that she is already within striking distance of both of the marks. If there’s one other person who believes she’ll get there, it’s Tweit.

“She’s been a hard worker,” Tweit said. “Each year she’s gotten better and better, and she’s very driven. To see her maturation from a freshman until now, to see how motivated she is and how good she wants to be, it’s extremely exciting for me. When a kid has the talent and the desire, and you see her start to get rewarded, that’s kind of what coaching’s all about. I’m excited for her.”

Tweit said that Hope has always wanted to run faster than her mother Lynn ran.

“Have you yet?” he quizzed her as she stood nearby.

Hope Bender just smiled again.

“I did last weekend,” she said, which caused her coach to smile as well.

“See, I knew it,” said Tweit, who also knows that there are plenty of highlights ahead for his emerging star.

If only the Sailors could keep her for future meets against CdM.

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Hope Bender

Born: Jan. 2, 1997

Hometown: Newport Beach

Height: 5-foot-6

Sport: Track

Year: Senior

Coach: Eric Tweit

Favorite food: Macaroni and cheese

Favorite movie: “Cool Runnings”

Favorite athletic moment: Winning the Sunset League in the 400-meter race as a sophomore.

Week in review: Bender won the 100 hurdles in a school-record 15.03 seconds last weekend at the Irvine Asics Invitational. She was also second in the 200 and third in the 400.