Boys track: Sailors make quick work of Irvine

Tony Altobelli

IRVINE - The Newport Harbor High boys track and field team ran,

jumped and threw it was in a hurry to go home and watch the NCAA

basketball tournament.

In a matchup similar to Duke vs. Monmouth, the Sailors breezed past

host Irvine, 103-29, in both teams’ Sea View League opener.

“It almost looks like we know what we were doing,” Newport Coach Bim

Barry joked upon hearing the score. “We opened up well with the relay

team and carried that momentum the rest of the meet. It was nice to see.”

The relay of note was the Sailors’ victorious 400-meter relay team of

Adam Kerns, David Sprenger, Dede Johnson and Richard Weber, who clocked

in with a time of 43.7. “From start to finish, it was just a nice, clean

race,” Barry said.

Kerns started out strong before Sprenger and Johnson opened the lead

wider. Weber took the last pass and has smooth sailing the rest of the

way.

Jesus Santana was one of four individual double-winners for the

Sailors. He took first in both the 1,600 (4:34.71) and 3,200 (9:59.7).

“Jesus had a strong double out there,” Barry said. “He’s really looking

good out there.”

Dan Moyer came through with wins on both the 110 high hurdles (15.81)

and 300 intermediate hurdles (41.22), bettering teammate Sean Tupy (16.01

in highs and 42.52 in intermediates) in both races.

Senior John Peschelt came through with a strong run in the 800

(2:03.21) before high-jumping his way to a mark of 5-10.

“He’s very steady out there,” Barry said of Peschelt. “He’s got a lot

of physical talent.”

Peschelt took first in the 800 ahead of Newport temmates Chris Negrete

(2:05.3) and freshman Kevin Artz (2:06.5).

Another Newport sweep came in the 1,600. Santana edged Chris McMillen

(4:36.19) and Alec Urtu (4:36.89).

David Marshall flexed some muscles in the shot put (40-4) and discus

(129-10), edging out his brother, Jeff Marshall in both events. Jeff had

solid marks of 39-8 in the shot put and 114-4 in discus.

Weber and Sprenger finished 1-2 in the 100 with times of 11.39 and

11.74, respectively.

Newport took two of the top three spots in all but one event and

placed first in 11 different events.

“It was a nice way to open league,” Barry said. “We set out what we

came over here to do and that was improve. I think we did that.”