Daily Pilot High School Athlete of the Week: Mia marvelous for Sailors

Eric Tweit has been coaching the Newport Harbor High girls’ cross country team for 28 years now, so his remarks about the history of the program tend to hold some weight.

A lot of talented runners have come through the program in that time. Yet, Tweit said he can only think of one sophomore in the past who has been as good as Mia Matsunami.

Amber Steen was her name then (now Amber Moore). A 2001 Newport Harbor graduate, Steen was a two-time CIF Southern Section Division 2 individual cross country champion. She won three Division 2 titles in track and field before going on to run at the University of Arizona and UC Irvine.

Impressive credentials indeed, but Tweit also sees that kind of potential in Matsunami, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week.

“She’s so light on her feet,” Tweit said. “When you watch her run sometimes, she doesn’t even seem like she’s going very fast, but she just has such nice form. She has so much upside. My goal for her this year in cross country is to make CIF finals. I think she might be a year away from making the state meet, but we’ll find out.”

Matsunami made quite a statement Saturday, when she won the Division 2 sophomore girls race at the Dana Hills Invitational. It was the first invitational win for the sophomore, and she did it in commanding fashion. She finished the three-mile course in a personal-record of 17 minutes, 53.5 seconds, which was 17 seconds faster than second-place Sarah Ayala of Claremont.

It was Matsunami’s first time running the Dana Hills course, but you couldn’t exactly tell. She went out quick and was in third place after the first mile before breaking away.

Well, maybe you could tell that it was Matsunami’s first time running Dana Hills. She said she briefly made a wrong turn and ran about 10 extra yards. She heard her parents, Tammy and Keith, briefly scream at her.

“You’re supposed to make two large loops, and after one of the loops I thought I had done two,” Mia Matsunami said. “So I started going right. I went down like 10 yards, and everyone started yelling at me to go the other way. It turned out fine.”

Matsunami was smart enough to quickly figure out her mistake, and it makes sense. She had a 4.0 grade-point average as a freshman at Harbor and is currently taking challenging courses like Advanced Placement World History and Language, as well as honors math and chemistry.

Mia grew up as a soccer player, playing as a defender for Slammers FC. Her mom, who runs marathons, encouraged her to try running. Mia came out to train with the Sailors in summer 2015, before her freshman year.

She quickly improved. By the end of last season she was the Sailors’ No. 2 runner, behind then-senior Emily Bacon, who now runs at Oregon State. She finished eighth at Sunset League finals. Then, around last March, she quit playing soccer to focus on running.

“Because I was so involved with soccer, I wasn’t at the summer camp a lot,” Matsunami said. “I didn’t really realize that was an important part of the season. So I definitely improved toward the end, but I knew there was a lot more that I could do this season. I feel like I’m finally starting where I finished, I guess, last season. I’m a lot happier with my times this season so far.”

This summer, nobody could say Matsunami didn’t put in the time. She said she did a lot of work at the El Moro dirt trail near Laguna Beach with her math teacher last year at Harbor, Andres Dominguez, who is also a runner.

“I owe a lot of the success on the hills to him, because he really pushed us,” Matsunami said. “I actually like them more now.”

The results are showing. Matsunami was third in the sophomore girls’ race at the Laguna Hills Invitational. She was second at the Sunset League preview meet on Sept. 21 at Central Park in Huntington Beach. Matsunami wasn’t really happy with her performance that day, but she shrugged it off.

“There’s always room for improvement,” she said. “Last year, my league preview meet wasn’t great either. It’s always hard on a Wednesday after school. It’s never ideal. I prefer morning races.”

Tweit said he believes his sophomore remains the favorite to win the league title. She’s a leader for the young Sailors, along with fellow sophomore Claire Bacon, who is Emily’s younger sister.

The numbers are down in the program overall, Tweit said. But he is glad he has a runner like Matsunami.

“There’s so much room for her to grow,” he said. “She’s just so bright, very smart. She’s very on it ... and I think there’s a lot of room for improvement. She’s still learning. I wouldn’t be surprised by her senior year if she’s as good as anybody we’ve had. She’s so close right now, and we’ll just see if she can continue that.”

The Sailors have scaled back their schedule this year, as they’re not running at the Mt. SAC Invitational or in Clovis. Tweit hopes to have Matsunami fresh and ready to run her best race at league finals, back at Central Park on Oct. 29.

The Central Park Invitational this Saturday will be a good challenge for Matsunami, he said. The Sailors are running in the top division at the meet hosted by Fountain Valley High.

Matsunami is looking for another good showing. Expect her to be locked in and ready to race.

“Every picture that I’ve ever seen of myself running, I’m never smiling,” she said. “I definitely get a game face on, and I’m kind of serious. During practice and on runs, I love to just have fun and talk with everyone that I run with, but during races I get pretty serious.”

Mia Matsunami

Born: May 11, 2001

Hometown: Newport Beach

Height: 5-foot-4

Sport: Cross country

Year: Sophomore

Coach: Eric Tweit

Favorite food: Pasta

Favorite movie: “Clueless”

Favorite athletic moment: Winning the 3,200 meters last spring at the Sunset League track finals at Huntington Beach High.

Week in review: Matsunami won the sophomore girls’ race at the Dana Hills Invitational in 17:53.5 on Saturday. She was also second at the Sunset League preview meet.