Prep Review / Barbie Ludovise : County Has a Running Start Toward Bright Track Future

If one thing was evident at the Southern Section track and field championships Saturday, it was that Orange County appears to have a successful track and field future. At least for the next two or three years.

Among the county’s top performers Saturday, many were underclassmen.

It is, according to some coaches, one of the best freshman and sophomore classes to come around in a long time.

“I can’t recall a year that there were so many talented frosh-soph kids,” said Al Britt, Esperanza track and field coach. “This year seems to be really unique.”

Esperanza won the boys’ 3-A team title Saturday. That in itself was a surprise. But perhaps more surprising was the fact that of the 13 Esperanza boys competing, six were sophomores and one a freshman.

All contributed to the victory, especially sophomore Roshawn Sims, who won the 400 meters and took fourth in the 200, and sophomore Trevor Lycett, who was third in the pole vault. Esperanza’s 1,600 relay, composed of underclassmen, took a surprising second.

Sophomores Tim Martin of San Clemente and Mike Terry of El Modena also performed impressively.

Martin, who missed the Southern Section meet last year because his mother’s car got a flat tire on the way, was fourth in a quality field of 100-meter runners, and was fast enough (10.68 seconds) to qualify for Friday’s Masters meet.

Terry, who El Modena Coach Tom Weber thinks will be the county’s best middle-distance runner over the next two years, won the 3-A title in the 800 meters. His time of 1:55.17 tied his personal best, but, because it was the 11th fastest overall Saturday, he will not advance as one of the top nine to the Masters meet.

The future appears even brighter for county girls, especially for Mission Viejo, the two-time defending county champion.

“This is the finest freshman class I’ve ever seen,” said Mission Viejo Coach Fred Almond, who added that great underclassmen don’t always become greater seniors.

“The whole trick will be, one, to keep them healthy,” he said. “Two, hope that they don’t move away, and three, that they stay interested.”

Of all the Diablos’ talented youngsters, perhaps none were more impressive than freshman Don’yelle Norris, who placed fourth in the 4-A 400 behind three of the state’s fastest quarter-milers.

Other young and talented county athletes include Melissa McDonald of Mater Dei, who qualified for the Masters in the long jump.

And, in the distance events, sophomores Amy Robles of Woodbridge, Terri Smythers of San Clemente, Martha Pinto of Katella and freshmen Tanja Brix of University and Shelley Taylor of Edison show hope for the county’s distance running, an area that’s been in a slump the last several years.

Taylor, though, has shown the most remarkable ability for a ninth-grader, especially because she only has nine months of training behind her. Saturday, she won 4-A titles in both the 800 and 1,600 meters, winning both events with smart tactics and sheer tenacity.

Still, Taylor says she doesn’t take it all that seriously.

“It’s all for fun, I realize that,” she said after winning the 800. “I know I still have three years. I know it’s not that important. . . . But everybody takes it so seriously. It’s sort of strange.”

Former Marina High distance star Shannon Winkelman watched some of his former rivals battle it out at Cerritos College Saturday afternoon. But Winkelman, now a freshman at UC Riverside, spent Saturday morning running one of his best races of his life in qualifying for the NCAA Division II championships this Saturday at Hampton, Va.

Winkelman, the Southern Section 4-A champion at 3,200 meters last year, ran a 14:23 5,000 at an all-comers meet at Santa Monica College. The time met the qualifying standard of 14:29.

Add Masters Meet: Charles Cummings and Vince Church of Kennedy and Tony Robinson of San Clemente advanced in the triple jump.

Cummings was third (47-3 1/4) and Church was fifth (46-8 1/2) in the 2-A triple jump. Robinson was fourth in the 4-A triple jump with a leap of 46-9 1/2.

In the shotput, Greg Thurston qualified by placing fourth in the 4-A with a toss of 54 feet 6 inches.

Also Woodbridge and Edison qualified in the 4 x 1,600-meter relay.

Field of dreams: A soccer and baseball complex being constructed in Irvine will be good news for the Woodbridge baseball team.

Two baseball fields, two soccer fields and four batting cages will be built in a project by the city and the Irvine Unified School District.

The city will provide the land and pay for some of the lighting costs, and the school district will pay for the actual construction.

Completion is expected by next spring.

“The facilities will be for all the Irvine schools,” said Paul Reed, deputy school district superintendent. “The main reason they were needed is that Woodbridge High School has expanded in recent years on a relatively small parcel of land, and it is without the normal field facilities a high school should have.”

Woodbridge’s baseball team has played its home games at Alton Park, a city-owned facility across the street from the school.

“It’s been really tough for us,” Woodbridge baseball Coach Tim O’Donoghue said. “We’re probably the only school that doesn’t have its own field. We get kicked off our field at 4:45 every day. The kids are looking at me like, ‘Coach, where are we supposed to practice?’ ”

Former San Clemente High tennis star Noelle Porter played her way into the national spotlight last week, advancing to the semifinals of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. individual women’s tennis championships at Gainesville, Fla.

Porter, one of Orange County’s top singles players while at San Clemente from 1984-88, and now the No. 3 singles player at Pepperdine, gained the upset of the tournament by defeating top-seeded Tami Whitlinger of Stanford, 1-6, 7-6, (7-2), 6-3, in the first round last Monday.

Porter, 18, and unseeded in the tournament, went on to win four more matches before finally being defeated in Thursday’s semifinals by Jennifer Santrock of Southern Methodist, 7-6, 7-3, 6-1.

“Of course, I hadn’t expected to play Tami Whitlinger in the first round,” Porter said. “But it was exciting. I like those kind of matches, going against the best. And being ranked No. 25 going in, it didn’t look like I had even a shot to beat her.

“I went into the match very nervous and intimidated, and after the first set I was thinking, ‘I’m being humiliated out here.’ Then I told myself whatever happened, I would do the best I could. All of a sudden, my game picked up, and I ended up beating her.”