Tars take 2nd

NORWALK — Newport Harbor High junior Ethan Cochran had the most crowd support of any competitor as he stepped into the ring for his first attempt at the discus Saturday afternoon at Cerritos College.

In addition to his Sailors coaches and teammates, Cochran said his mother, two uncles, an aunt and a cousin were on hand to watch the CIF Southern Section track and field divisional finals.

The applause died down for Cochran's first attempt. Seconds later it came again, even louder than before.

It was a personal-record throw of 194 feet. Cochran was not done.

Two throws later he hurled a 195-4 that easily won him the Division II title.

"I had a really good week of practice, so I just tried to carry that over to the meet and it worked out," Cochran said. He set a personal-best by nine feet, four inches and is now third in the state. He qualified first for Friday's CIF Southern Section Masters meet by more than 12 feet.

Cochran was one of three individual event winners Saturday, all of whom qualify for the Masters meet back at Cerritos College. He helped Newport Harbor finish a strong second in the Division II boys' team standings behind champion Loyola, despite not having any runners in the meet.

No one from Newport Harbor was really around at about 7:30 p.m. to accept the second-place plaque at the awards presentation. The Sailors still will have plenty of people coming back to Cerritos College for Masters.

Newport senior Mark Sakioka won the Division II boys' pole vault in a personal-best and school-record 16 feet, 3 inches, tying for first in Masters qualifying. Corona del Mar junior Karléh Wilson won the Division III girls' shot put in 41-2 ½, qualifying fourth for Masters.

Sailors senior Ryan Andrews was second in the Division II boys' shot put with a 59-9 3/4 mark, a personal best. Andrews qualified third for Masters, part of a strong day from the Sailors' throwers.

Newport senior JB Salem was fifth in the Division II shot with his mark of 56 feet even, qualifying eighth for Masters. Junior Steve Michaelsen was fifth in the Division II discus and qualified 11th for Masters, hanging in there after throws coach Tony Ciarelli said Michaelsen tweaked his back earlier in the week.

That made four Newport Harbor throwers who moved on, better than just the one (graduate Jake Taylor) from a year ago.