Athlete of the Week: Wilson sets the pace for Sailors

Newport Harbor High junior Ben Wilson bears at least a passing resemblance to the actor Edward Norton, albeit younger and with blonde hair.

“I’ve gotten that a lot,” Wilson said.

In terms of his cross country career, though, Wilson certainly is creating his own legacy. The results speak for themselves.

Wilson won the Sunset League title on Oct. 31 at Central Park in Huntington Beach. He out-kicked Fountain Valley senior William Hua to cross the finish line in 15 minutes, 12.9 seconds, besting Hua by just more than four seconds.

It was an intelligent race by Wilson, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week who became the first Sailors male to win the league title since Rex Nelson in 2007. On Halloween morning, Wilson showed that he was not scared to trail Hua for most of the three-mile race.

“I needed to have him close to me the entire time, until the end,” Wilson said. “I mean, he’s beaten me before. It’s definitely been back and forth between us, but every time I won the race before, it was always because I had the better kick.

“The only thing I was worried about was him getting away from me the last mile. He actually held it together a lot better than I thought he would ... he kept ahead of me the entire race. I had to really work for it.”

Wilson, in his second year as the Sailors’ top runner, led a big day for Newport Harbor’s boys overall. They exceeded expectations to place second behind Huntington Beach, qualifying for the CIF Southern Section Division 2 preliminaries on Nov. 14 at the new Riverside Cross Country Course. They are the first Newport Harbor boys’ team to advance to CIF in five years.

Last year, the Sailors didn’t make it past league finals, not even Wilson, who took seventh place and was one spot out of advancing individually.

This year, the Sailors are coming together at the end of the season. Wilson was one of four Newport Harbor runners who had a personal-best time at league finals, Coach Nowell Kay said, joining senior Erik Herrera (eighth, 15:45), freshman Alexis Garcia (15th, 16:11) and junior Seanliam McCarthy (22nd, 16:36). The other Sailor to score in the top five was the third-place guy on the team, junior Mark Fields, who was 14th in 16:09.

Wilson is glad that his teammates will be there to run with him at Riverside. It’s a course the Sailors are familiar with, as they ran a modified two-and-a-half mile course there at the start of the season, as well as the Riverside Invitational on Oct. 24.

“We have a lot more depth,” Wilson said. “I have a lot more faith in my team this year, and it also just feels a lot better that we’re all improving by so much.”

Wilson certainly wants to keep improving. He got into the sport with help from the influence of former Newport runner Marcel DeBarrios. He had a solid freshman year in cross country, but really showed his potential during the track season that year. At league finals, he won the frosh-soph 3,200 meters, again coming back to edge out Hua.

“That was my first-ever official win, and it was the best runner’s high I’ve ever had,” Wilson said. “It’s really what got me into running ... I woke up in the middle of the night and I had so much adrenaline. I couldn’t sleep. I was just thinking about that race the whole time. It was insane.”

Now it’s the times in cross country that are starting to get insane for Wilson. His goal remains to break 15 minutes this season, which he said would put him into the top-five all-time at Newport Harbor. The school record for the three-mile race is a 14:31, set by Jim Geerlings in 1987. Geerlings was one of the top mile-runners in the nation that year.

Wilson has a way to go to get that low, or to approach a track record that he’s gunning for, Nelson’s 9:02 in the 3,200. Wilson said his best so far is a 9:49, run as a sophomore last year at Orange County Championships.

“I wouldn’t put it past him,” said Kay, who calls Wilson a natural leader although he isn’t technically a team captain. “Ben is a de facto captain. Team-wise, we’ve been healthy the second half of the season. And having Ben be as good as he’s been, it brings everyone else up too.”

He will continue working hard toward another goal, which is to run at a Division 1 college. The University of Oregon or Colorado-Boulder are among Wilson’s top choices.

Until then, he has his routine. Right now the weekend schedule consists of races on Saturdays and working as a host at Plum’s Cafe and Catering in Costa Mesa on Sundays. Kay, who also works there as a caterer, got Wilson the job.

This weekend, though, there is no race to run. And that’s OK with Wilson, too.

“It’s nice to have a Saturday off,” said Wilson, who has certainly earned it.

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Ben Wilson

Born: Jan. 29, 1999

Hometown: Newport Beach

Height: 5-foot-10

Weight: 140 pounds

Sport: Cross country

Year: Junior

Coach: Nowell Kay

Favorite food: Pasta

Favorite movie: “Anchorman”

Favorite athletic moment: Winning the frosh-soph 3,200 meter league title in track freshman year at Huntington Beach High.

Week in review: Wilson won the Sunset League boys’ cross country title on Oct. 31, finishing in 15:12 at Central Park in Huntington Beach.