Sailors’ finish solid

ORANGE — As the coach of the area’s lone boys’ team in the biggest race Saturday morning, Newport Harbor High Coach Nowell Kay was OK with the finish.

“I wasn’t overly ecstatic about it,” Kay said.

The Sailors fell short of their goal at the 42nd annual Orange County Cross Country Championships.

Newport Harbor placed ninth in the sweepstakes race on the three-mile course at Irvine Regional Park.

“We wanted a top five [finish],” said senior Jake Dawson, who recorded Newport Harbor’s best time, 15 minutes, 27 seconds, good for 19th place.

More like a top six finish if you asked Kay.

The sweepstakes race was loaded with Dana Hills, ranked No. 1 in the CIF Southern Section Division I poll, winning the event.

Also in the race were Division I powers, No. 3 Trabuco Hills and No. 7 El Toro, which placed third and fourth, respectively.

In Division II, No. 5 Woodbridge, No. 8 Valencia, sandwiched in between those two was No. 7 Newport Harbor.

“We were looking how we finished as [regard] to the Division II schools,” Kay said.

The Sailors finished behind Valencia and Woodbridge, which placed fifth and seventh, respectively.

Taking second was Foothill, No. 3 in Division III.

The two teams finishing sixth and eighth were Esperanza and Fountain Valley, two of Newport Harbor’s Sunset League foes.

The Sailors are going to take it easy next week at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational in Walnut and won’t compete in the sweepstakes race.

The reason behind it is easy.

“Our league meet [in two weeks] is more important,” Kay said. “We’re hoping to repeat [as league champions].”

To do so, the senior-laden Sailors will have to pick it up at the league finals.

Kay said No. 2 runner Michael Taylor ran well (15:33, 25th) and so did No. 4 runner Saul Delarosa (16:11, 65th).

“Taylor ran closer to his [personal record] than Jake did to his,” said Kay, whose other top runners were Scott Figueroa (15:56, 49th) and Alex Jolly (16:37, 91st). “He was a lot closer to Jake than he normally is.”

The area’s best finish belonged to Estancia senior Fernando Orozco.

Orozco placed fourth in the Division II race with a personal-best course record of 15:27.

Estancia Coach Charlie Appell was happy with the result, especially after Orozco improved on last week’s time at the Clovis Invitational.

“It was a good time,” said Appell, adding that it cracked the top four all-time at Estancia.

The rest of the Eagles helping Estancia to a ninth-place showing were Jorge Martin (15:55, 15th), Damian Leon (16:41, 60th), Wes Barloon (16:45, 69th) and Juan Jeronimo (17:06, 92nd).

El Modena won the title.

In the Division III event, Corona del Mar placed third, Costa Mesa 10th and Sage Hill School 13th.

University finished first.

CdM had junior Sebastien Welch and senior Matt Haug placed seventh (16:08) and ninth (16:10), respectively.

Costa Mesa junior James Stucker finished right behind at 10th (16:10).

Junior Lion Wintemute was 15th (16:19) for Sage Hill.

“We’re shooting for a top 10 finish,” said Sage Hill Coach Nate Miller in the Division V sweepstakes at the Mt. SAC Invitational next week.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].