Heads-Lane Is a Favorite at Weightlifting Trials

American record-holder Cara Heads-Lane, formerly of Costa Mesa, is among the favorites today at the U.S. Olympic weightlifting trials in Westwego, La.

Heads-Lane, who has relocated to Savannah, Ga., to train with U.S. women’s national Coach Michael Cohen, is ranked No. 4 in the country and is coming off back-to-back gold-medal performances in the 1999 and 2000 national championships.

She is the training partner of top-ranked Cheryl Haworth, 16, who dominated competition in the women’s 75+-kilogram division at a pre-Olympic event in Sydney in March.

The two compete for Team Savannah, which also produced Oscar Chaplin, the top-ranked competitor in the men’s division.

Heads-Lane began weightlifting eight years ago. In 1996 she competed for the junior national team and a year later for the junior national world team and the U.S. national team.

Also entered in the trials is 16th-ranked Erink Okonek of Huntington Beach.

The top four competitors advance to the Olympics in Sydney.

SOCCER

Tino Ray Younger has stepped down as girls’ soccer coach at Marina High.

Younger, 35, led the Vikings to their first playoff appearance in five years last season, his third as Marina’s coach. They upset fourth-seeded Aliso Niguel in the first round. The Vikings were ranked in the county’s top-10 all season, and finished No. 10 in the Southern Section Division I poll.

Younger said he plans to dedicate himself to his two club teams and the La Mirada AYSO program, which each won state titles last season.

“My ability to just go out and coach at Marina no longer exists,” Younger said Friday. “The commitment necessary to run the program takes too much time and energy away from myself and my other teams. This past summer it’s become increasingly evident the toll that it has taken.”

Younger was also an assistant coach at Cypress College for six years, before resigning last season. The Chargers won five conference titles and reached the state finals five times, with one title, while Younger was on the staff.