A RUNNING RIVALRY

Before entering the Serra League for the 1999-2000 school year, Santa Margarita and Mater Dei had never met in a regular-season dual meet and didn’t share much in common.

The Santa Margarita girls’ team won its first Orange County title in 1997, consecutive Sea View League titles in 1998-99 and county and Southern Section Division II championships last season.

Mater Dei, nearly 40 years older than Santa Margarita, had its share of individual standouts, but never enough at one time to pose a threat in team competitions.

But Mater Dei boasts its best group ever this season and the Monarchs’ wide-ranging talents played a huge role in winning the school’s first Orange County Championships title last month. Santa Margarita’s similar depth prevailed in a dual meet against Mater Dei the week before the county championships and again at the league finals Friday.

Now, the competition moves to the Southern Section Division III finals, which begin with the preliminaries Saturday at Long Beach Veterans Stadium. Santa Margarita and Mater Dei share the top spot in the Division III rankings and it’s anyone’s guess which team will finish ahead this time.

“There’s definitely a rivalry,” said Mater Dei senior Lauren Adams. “We’re very close and we both have a lot of very talented people.”

Santa Margarita junior Lori Mann agreed. “I think it’s great for our team [to have a rivalry] with another Catholic school,” she said. “Both of our sports programs are really good, so we compete against them in every sport, it’s competitive. It’s kind of fun to bring that out to the track.”

Santa Margarita was expected to be near the top in Division III this season. The Eagles had a strong corps of returners, including Mann and seniors Meghan Atkinson and Christy Von der Ahe.

But the Eagles dropped off a bit after season-ending injuries to distance runners Meghan Mainwaring and Sommer Owens and they finished a disappointing fifth at the county championships.

Mater Dei rose to the top after gaining notice from an impressive dual-meet victory over perennial powerhouse Woodbridge in mid-March, then winning at the county championships.

Mater Dei senior Lindsay Wells has emerged as one of the top hurdlers in the county and Division III, and the senior also anchors a potent relay team that includes Adams, senior Grace Rozar and sophomore Catherine Schmidt.

Another sophomore, Jenny Sears, should give the Monarchs key points in the distance events, especially if she can get by Mann, as she did at the county championships. Freshman Ashley Voisinet has emerged as a threat in the long jump and triple jump and seniors Vanessa Duquette (pole vault) and Mary Uata (shotput, discus) are also potential scorers in the field events.

“We look at their scores and we look at the people they have and we know it’s definitely a challenge,” Adams said.

Santa Margarita made a strategic move at the league finals, dropping Atkinson from the 100 in favor of the 400, where Garcia thinks she has a better chance to earn more points.

In only her second effort in the 400 this season, Atkinson won the event at the league finals with the county’s second-fastest time this season (58.01). Freshman teammate Emily Kalmbach was second (58.52) and Adams third (58.61). The 400 is expected to be one of the highlights of the section finals, with the county’s top six runners in Division III.

“I think we’re going to beat each other up in the 400,” said Mater Dei Coach Rick Martinez, who graduated from the school in 1983 and began coaching there in 1991. “But we’re going to gain ground in the hurdles and long and triple jump.”

Garcia said his team didn’t qualify as many as he had hoped. Von der Ahe qualified in the pole vault and long jump, but missed out on the triple jump. Whitney Larson was also expected to qualify in the 300 hurdles, but she hit the second-to-last hurdle and missed qualifying by .04 seconds.

Garcia was optimistic with the performance of freshman Mandie Rowell, a surprise qualifier in both the 100 hurdles and pole vault, and sophomore Tricia Reagan, who qualified in the high jump after setting a school record in the league finals (5-3).

“We try to get a lot of kids fired up to qualify,” Garcia said. “Even if they just score one point in the finals, it could be the difference.”

MORE LOOKING AHEAD

The Division I and II preliminaries begin Friday. Division I will be held at Veterans Stadium and Division II at Mt. San Antonio College. Both meets are scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m.

The Esperanza boys are ranked second in Division I, Tustin is ranked second in Division II and Santa Margarita second in Division III.

The Esperanza girls are ranked fourth in Division I, Newport Harbor and Woodbridge are second and third in Division II, and Corona del Mar is ranked third in Division III.

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