High School Track & Field: Locals set for finals
The performance of the Newport Harbor girls’ team at Saturday’s CIF Southern Section Track & Field Championships will rely on skill, sure, but Hope is also a big part of the equation.
Senior Hope Bender, bound for UC Santa Barbara, will compete in the Division 2 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles, as well as on the 4x400 relay at Cerritos College.
Juniors Emma Kratzberg (100 hurdles and 300 hurdles) and Rachelle A La Torre (shotput and discus) are the other individuals competing for Newport Harbor’s girls, who can expect a strong team showing. They are tied for second in the latest Division 2 girls’ CalPrepTrack.com poll, trailing only Redlands.
Bender, who holds the school record in both hurdles events, qualified second in the 300 hurdles and fifth in the 100 hurdles at last weekend’s Division 2 preliminaries at Moorpark High. Bender’s winning time of 14.49 seconds was a meet record at Sunset League finals and ranked No. 17 in California this season. Her season-best 43.39 in the 300 hurdles at the Orange County Championships ranks No. 12 in the state.
Kratzberg qualified fourth in the 300 hurdles and sixth in the 100 hurdles. A La Torre, the league champion in both events, qualified sixth in the shotput and seventh in the discus. She comes into the meet ranked 14th in the state in the discus (140-3), the fourth-best mark by a Southern Section athlete this season.
The 4x400 team of Paige Fults, Kratzberg, Lauren Loucks and Bender qualified third in Division 2 in a school-record time of 3 minutes, 56.45 seconds.
Newport Harbor also has two boys competing: Cole Smith in the discus and Michael Jarboe in the shotput, for the largest Newport-Mesa contingent with seven athletes.
Corona del Mar has five competing in Division 3, Costa Mesa two in Division 3 and Sage Hill two in Division 4 for a total of 16 Newport-Mesa competitors.
The top nine performances regardless of division in the sprints, hurdles and relays qualify for the CIF Southern Section Masters Meet back at Cerritos College on Friday. The top 12 in the distance and field events also earn berths to Masters, which is a qualifier for the CIF State Championships.
Of the 16 local athletes competing, only Sage Hill senior CJ McCord has been past this meet. McCord finished second in the state last year in the high jump with a school record of 6-10 1/4. Last year he was CIF Southern Section Division 4 champion. This year, the Yale-bound McCord also qualified first in Division 4 by clearing 6-2 last weekend at the preliminaries at Carpenteria High.
McCord’s best mark this year is a 6-6, tied for No. 20 in the state. He also qualified fifth in the 400.
Senior Parker Nostrand highlights the Sea Kings’ entries. He qualified first in the Division 3 boys’ 800 in 1:56.28. Nostrand will also anchor the Sea Kings’ 4x400 relay team, which qualified ninth and includes freshman Omar Adel, junior Sutton Barbato and junior Austin Baxter.
Senior Anuare Magana should be a strong competitor for the Costa Mesa boys. He qualified fourth in Division 3 in the boys’ 3,200 and sixth in the 1,600. The other Mustang competing is junior Paige LaBare (girls’ 100).
Sophomore Raquel Powers (girls’ 3,200) is CdM’s other entry.
Sage Hill junior Chance Kuehnel has qualified in the boys’ high jump and 110 high hurdles.
Kuehnel, who qualified second behind McCord in the high jump (6-0), is the Academy League champion and holds the school record in the 110 hurdles (15.27).
Field events start at 10:30 a.m. Running events begin at 1 p.m. and continue through 6:30 p.m.
Twitter: @mjszabo
