Berry, Bryson, Mead Robson, Stokke are in

MOORPARK — Allison Stokke was the last to jump, and the first Newport Harbor High track and field athlete to escape the crowd, traffic and heat.

Who could blame her after waiting around close to three hours to vault herself to the top?

One leap is all Stokke needed to soar above the rest of the pole vaulters with an 11-foot clearance at the CIF Southern Section Division II preliminaries at Moorpark High Saturday.

The senior was one of five Newport Harbor girls qualifying for next week’s CIF Southern Section championships at Cerritos College, where the competition is sure to be superior to Saturday’s.

“This was just another [meet] to get to my ultimate goal,” said Stokke, who won state as a freshman and placed second last year as a junior after missing state because she broke her right tibia late in her sophomore year before the CIF postseason began.

“It should get tougher.”

At Cerritos, athletes from Division I through IV will compete for nine coveted spots, 12 for those in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter events, into the Masters, the precursor to the state championships.

None of the five boys competing for the Sailors advanced out of the prelims, but to Coach Eric Tweit that was OK.

“On the girls side it was pretty good,” said Tweit, smiling of course because he’s the girls’ coach.

Joining UC Berkeley-bound senior Stokke were Dartmouth College-bound senior Jessica Robson in the high jump (seeded second, 5-4), UC Berkeley-bound senior Taylor Bryson in the 1,600 (sixth, 5 minutes, 2.6 seconds) and Iona-bound senior Melissa Mead in the 3,200 (sixth, 11:03.42).

The big surprise was sophomore Lillie Berry moving on in the 400 (seventh, 59.25 seconds). Along with Berry, Robson and Mead made the next stage for the first time in their respective events.

“I think we were just hoping she’d be a varsity runner,” said Tweit of Berry, who was 26th in the 200 (26.61) and didn’t qualify for the event. “Little by little, she got better, and she’s helping us, then all of sudden she takes second in the Sunset League, and then she comes out [Saturday] and qualifies. That was awesome.”

What wasn’t breathtaking for Tweit, who’s been coaching at Newport Harbor since 1980, was watching Laura Clayton stumble in the triple jump.

Tweit expected the senior to qualify for her first section final, which her older sisters, Mandy, M.E. and Elizabeth, achieved when they were a part of the Sailors’ track and field program.

Coach Nowell Kay said it best when Clayton’s 34-6 1/2 was good enough for 10th, coming up short of the ninth and final qualifying mark of 34-10 set by sophomore Britanie Smith of Pioneer Valley. Clayton was also 26th in the 100 hurdles at 16.91 seconds.

“End of the Clayton line,” said Kay, who for 15 years coached a Clayton girl. “Two of her three jumps were fouls. They only get three jumps here, so that puts a little bit pressure on them.

“She fouled her first one. She kind of played it safe on the second one, and it wasn’t quite far enough to get a qualifying mark. [On her third jump] she just fouled, over the board about an inch and a half.”

So close was Clayton from achieving her goal before heading off to Brigham Young University, where her sister Elizabeth is studying. Only if she had matched the 36-11 1/2 -mark she landed in winning the Sunset League championship.

Robson missed the hat trick. In the 100 hurdles, her 15.42 time was 10th, but Tweit said it broke Newport Harbor’s school record of 15.54 set by Clayton’s sister, M.E., who graduated in 1997. Robson will be an alternate next week in the 100 hurdles, as well in the long jump event in which she was 11th (16-8 1/2 ). Last year, she qualified for the finals in the long jump, but not the high jump.

“She’s been trying for four years to make it to the CIF finals in the high jump,” Tweit said. “Every year something happened.”

Here is how some of the rest of the girls finished: Sophia Ditty (3,200, 15th, 11:35.29), Desiree Alexander (3,200, 21st, 11:44.90), Kirby Burnham (300 hurdles, 30th, 50 seconds)

and the 4x400 relay team of Kayla Henrie, Lauren Maddox, Christina Cooley and Berry (15th, 4:08.08).

In the boys, Cecil Whiteside (discus throw, 16th, 149-8), Rex Nelson (1,600, 24th, 4:32.20), Jake Dawson (3,200, 27th, 10:07.87) and Nate Talbott (discus, 25th, 143). Murphy Hitchcock, in the 800, also competed but didn’t qualify.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].