Steen, Allen Take the Lead at Laguna Hills

Newport Harbor’s Amber Steen and Fountain Valley’s Julie Allen ran in separate races Saturday at the Laguna Hills Invitational, but they really belonged together in a class by themselves.

Steen ran the fastest girls’ time at the 17th annual meet, winning the three-mile Division II junior/senior race in 17 minutes 58 seconds. Steen’s time was 42 seconds faster than what she ran in the same race last season, and 47 seconds faster than her closest pursuer Saturday, Lindsay Grose of Trabuco Hills, who equaled the fourth-fastest time of the day.

Steen, who won a Southern Section Division II title and finished fifth in state last season, credits her time improvement to a switch in training partners. Steen began running with the Newport Harbor boys’ team this summer and that is helping her run at a faster pace.

“The boys are so nice to let me run with them,” Steen said. “It was getting hard because I don’t have any girl runners to run with.”

Allen, the Times’ Orange County runner of the year last season, won the Division I junior/senior race in 18:05, but would have finished with a faster time if she hadn’t fallen during the race.

Allen, who is taking a break from club soccer to concentrate on running this season, said she was rounding a curve when she slipped and slid into a post. She crossed the finish line with a silver dollar-sized scrape on the back of her upper leg and smaller scrapes on her elbow and knee, but still managed to make light of the situation.

“I decided to do a slide tackle around a post rather than a defender,” she said. “I was missing the soccer games too much.”

Season Meservey of Corona del Mar led a string of teammates across the finish line in the Division III junior/senior race. Meservey finished in 18:49, the fourth-best time among county runners and the sixth-best overall. Corona del Mar, the county’s top-ranked team, took the top four spots in the race and five of the top six, all finishing in under 19:27.

“This is just practice for us,” Meservey said. “Just to see where we are right now.”

In the boys’ race, Dana Hills had the strongest showing among county teams, winning the Division I junior and senior team titles.

The Dolphins showed off their depth with 10 runners at 17:04 or better, including seven under 16:48. Santa Margarita, the county’s top-ranked team coming into the season, had four runners break 16:48.

Devin Segal led the way for the Dolphins, finishing third in the Division I senior race in 15:39.

“It was a good invitational today,” Segal said. “I beat last year’s time by like 11 seconds and I thought I had a perfect race last year.”

Ozzie Pina, who transferred from Lakewood to Long Beach Poly, won the Division I senior race in 15:20, the fastest time of the day and one of four sub-16-minute performances for the Jackrabbits. Edison’s Scott Brandos finished third in the same race with the county’s fastest time (15:30).

Santa Ana’s Diego Rocha appears to be one of the early surprises this season, winning the Division I junior race in 15:39, the third-fastest time in the county and fifth-fastest overall. Santa Margarita’s Steven Murray won the Division II senior race in 15:48, the fourth-fastest time among county runners and the eighth-fastest overall.

Michael Haddan of Woodbridge also started impressively, winning the Division I freshman race in 15:59, the eighth-fastest time among county runners.