Peninsula’s All-Around Athlete Got Off to Flying Start in Track : Preps: In only her first season on the team, Maya Muneno has blossomed into quality distance runner. She had the top qualifying times in two events at last week’s Southern Section 4-A Division preliminaries.

When it comes to track, Peninsula High senior distance runner Maya Muneno has been a quick study.

In her first three years in high school, Muneno competed in three sports, but track wasn’t one of them.

Now in her first season in the sport, Muneno, 17, is leaving a lasting impression.

Muneno had the top qualifying time in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs at the Southern Section 4-A Division preliminaries last week. At Saturday’s division final at Cerritos College, she will run only the 3,200.

Coach Joe Kelly said there is no telling how much better she can become.

“I think Maya has a lot of improvement ahead of her,” he said. “She already runs like she’s experienced even though she didn’t run track before this year. She has a good sense of pace and strategy.”

While Muneno is new to the sport, she had already enjoyed a measure of success in athletics before she joined the track team.

In her first three years at Palos Verdes High, Muneno participated in swimming, basketball and cross-country.

She was a swimmer for three seasons at Palos Verdes, excelling in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle. In fact, she set the school record in the 50 freestyle as a junior.

“This is kind of a change for me,” Muneno said. “I’m a distance runner in track but I was a sprinter in swimming.”

The 5-foot-3 Muneno also played guard for three years on the Palos Verdes basketball team, splitting time between the varsity and junior varsity. After Palos Verdes merged with Rolling Hills and Miraleste to form Peninsula before her senior season, Muneno stopped competing in basketball.

“The change in schools was one thing and the basketball coach likes everyone on the team to only play basketball,” she said. “He didn’t want you to play other sports and I ran and swam too. Basketball takes up a lot of time and if you want to develop your skills you have to play all year.”

But Muneno acknowledges that she had mixed feelings about not playing when the Panthers went undefeated and won the national title last season.

“I guess it upsets me a little,” she said. “I kind of miss playing basketball, but I think a lot of the fun was taken out of it for me.”

It may have been a preview of things to come when Muneno enjoyed a standout senior season in cross-country. She finished third in the Southern Section Division I final and sixth in the State Division I final to lead the Panthers to second place in both meets.

“Cross-country is probably the sport where I’m the most competitive,” Muneno said. “I’m not really graceful, but I’ve got good instincts.”

Kelly, who also coaches Muneno in cross-country, said she has made a smooth transition to track.

“It hasn’t been a difficult transition at all,” he said. “In fact, she’s probably doing a little better in track than she was in cross-country.”

Kelly credits Muneno’s rapid development in track to her desire to excel.

“She has a great sense of competition,” he said. “She just loves to compete and the greater the competition, the more she likes it. I don’t think you can coach that. It’s either in the genes or it’s in your family background.”

Said Muneno: “I never considered myself as being very competitive, but Coach Kelly said I am. I was always competitive in cross-country because I always knew I had to stay up with a certain girl (in a meet). But track is different from cross-country.

“Cross-country is very team-oriented, but track is more independent. It’s also more exciting. You get that adrenaline pumping and it just takes over.”

Muneno said she also maintained her zest for track because she had not competed previously in the sport.

“I think I’ll be less likely to burn out in track than if I was already competing in it for four years,” Muneno said. “It’s still something that’s new to me. It’s fun and it’s new to me and the workouts are totally different (from cross-country).”

Kelly said Muneno’s future in track is at longer distances.

“I think her best distance right now would be the 5,000 meters,” he said. “But since you don’t run that distance in high school, the 3,200 is the next best thing.”

With that in mind, Muneno has decided to drop the 1,600 for Saturday’s meet. “I think I can definitely get farther in the 3,200 than I can in the 1,600,” she said.

But Muneno says she doesn’t want to even think about earning a berth to the state meet.

“I never knew how hard it was to make it past the (Southern Section) finals and I’m just starting to realize that,” she said. “To make it past the finals would be a real accomplishment. So I’m just hoping to do that right now.”

Muneno expects to continue running track and cross-country at UCLA in the fall, where she will join the teams as a walk-on.

For the moment, though, Muneno doesn’t want to look too far ahead.

“I kind of want to savor this first,” she said. “When I get to that level, it will be a huge step to overcome. I went to the (Mt. San Antonio College) Relays and watched the college girls run and it’s kind of scary.”

But Muneno is hopeful that she has more high school races before having to worry about competing against college athletes.