Sailors strong in field

Newport Harbor High fields a strong contingent at the CIF Southern Section track and field divisional finals Saturday at Cerritos College.

All of the Sailors’ eight athletes competing, it turns out, are actually in the “field” part of track and field.

Senior Mark Sakioka is one of the top pole vaulters in the state and will be looking to take home a Division II title. Sakioka is third in the state with a school-record height of 16 feet, 2 1/2 inches this year and was one of eight vaulters to clear 14-3 to finish top nine and advance at last week’s Division II preliminaries, a list that also included teammate Fritz Howser.

The top nine finishers in most of the track events at Saturday’s meet, regardless of division, move on to the CIF Southern Section Masters meet. The top 12 field event finishers, plus distance running events, also move on.

Harbor is also strong in the throws with Ethan Cochran, who qualified first in Division II in the discus. Teammate Steve Michaelsen qualified fifth in the discus and Ryan Andrews (third), JB Salem (fourth) and Trevor Lawrence (ninth) all qualified in the shot put.

Cochran is fifth in the state with a 186-0 in the discus. Andrews is sixth in the state with a 59-8 in the shot.

The Sailors’ Allison Krugman also will be competing in the girls’ pole vault.

Corona del Mar junior thrower Karléh Wilson is also someone to look out for, as she qualified first in Division III in the shot (a personal-best 41-3) and second in the discus (a personal-best 124-8). She’ll be joined by senior teammate Devon Hoppe, who qualified sixth in the 800 meters with a personal-best 2:17.42.

CdM junior Ashlee Powers qualified in two events, grabbing the sixth spot in both the 1,600 and 3,200.

Orange Lutheran senior Ava Kent, a Costa Mesa resident, qualified seventh in the 1,600. The CdM boys’ 4x400 relay team (John Swigert, Alex Turney, Ryan Rodrigues and Kyle Iverson) qualified eighth.

Sage Hill will be represented in Division IV by three boys. Senior Colton Gyulay qualified third in the triple jump and ninth in the long jump, and junior Jack Percival qualified fourth in the 800. Senior Luc Angel qualified in the pole vault.

Sakioka is the lone Newport-Mesa athlete competing Saturday who advanced past the CIF finals to the Masters meet last year.