Newport Harbor’s Aidan Elbettar builds on big beginning at Beach Cities Invitational

Newport Harbor High thrower Aidan Elbettar became the talk of the town when he unleashed a throw of 197 feet, four inches to temporarily become the national leader in boys’ discus on March 13.

In a matter of days, the national lead was taken over by Jacob Lemmon of Fort Myers, FL (202-7), which only further motivated Elbettar.

He has made incremental improvement throughout the season. On Saturday, the junior added to his growing story.

Elbettar pulled off a sweep of the throws in the Beach Cities Invitational at Huntington Beach High, highlighting his afternoon with a lifetime-best heave of 62-9½ to win boys’ shotput.

“It’s good going into the season, knowing that every week, I’m PR’ing by a little bit,” Elbettar said. “If I PR little bit by little bit, I’ll be the best around the nation sometime next year or this year, and that would be great.”

The returning state medalist in the shotput has steadily added to his personal record in the event. Sailors throws coach Tony Ciarelli said that Elbettar is close to converting to spinning, but for now, he continues to use the glide in competition.

“We’re working on switching from the glide to the spin, and that’s going to help me out a lot,” Elbettar said. “I’ll start throwing farther, making bigger jumps, and just getting better overall.”

Elbettar’s winning mark in the discus throw was 188-7.

The meet was put on by Marina High, and the Vikings earned a pair of victories in the field. Senior Jonathan Diaz (44-0) narrowly defeated Los Alamitos’ Sean Ayale (43-10½) in the boys’ triple jump.

In boys’ pole vault, senior Skyler Magula topped the field with a clearance of 15-0. On his first attempt to best former Viking Jett Gordon’s meet record with the bar at 16-1, Magula fell between the mats in the pit and hurt his back.

Magula opted not to climb the pull on his final two attempts, weighing the risk of aggravating the injury with two months remaining in the season.

“It started last year with these pits, where once you start going to a certain height, you’ll come down, and you’ll hit the pit, and you’ll max out the foam and you’ll hit the floor,” Magula said. “It’s not as bad because it’s just bottoming out, but on that jump, I missed the mats right in between and plummeted straight to the floor and smacked my back into it.”

Huntington Beach’s Jack Wiseman edged Edison’s Aiden Garnett on total misses in the boys’ high jump. The two former CIF Southern Section Masters Meet qualifiers both cleared the bar at 6-4.

The Oilers swept high jump, thanks to Hana Chin, who leapt to a personal record of 5-3.

On the track, Oilers senior Dylan Plantinga doubled as the winner of the 200 meters and the 400. His time of 22.04 seconds in the 200 moved him into first place in Orange County under all conditions, and his time of 50.09 seconds in the 400 moved him into sixth place in the county.

“The 400, I’ve been working on block starts all week because now that we’re down in the short rows, it’s really just correction of mechanics,” Plantinga said. “That block start was everything. I’m putting more of a lean on it, and I’m running towards the inside of that curve as soon as I can.”

The area held court in the 1,600 meters to begin the day. Fountain Valley’s Sara Feitz won the girls’ race in 5:10.85, backed by teammates Ashlee Gallegos (5:12.63) and Isabella Guerra (5:15.47), who finished second and fourth, respectively.

“I’ve been working really hard on my 800 and my two-mile, so my mile has been put on the back burner for a while, but I knew today was going to be really good competition and good weather,” said Feitz after setting a two-second personal record.

“The other people running today, they really helped me reach that goal. It’s been a good two years since I’ve gotten that PR, so I’m really happy.”

Costa Mesa’s Diane Molina took third (5:13.82) in the race. She also won the 3,200 race in 11:06.43 on Friday night.

In the race that followed, Ocean View’s Edwin Montes engineered a comeback in the fourth and final lap after setting the pace through the first half of the heat.

“I knew I had to get out strong, so I think I came in like 2:10,” Montes said after winning with a time of 4:23.15. “I knew that the third lap, someone was going to catch up to me, so I was just trying to stick with them.

“I was falling back, but I knew that I still had a lot left, so I was just waiting for the last lap so that I could start picking it up.”

Kaho Cichon, Sophie Lopez, Crystal Nguyen and Amie Le combined to run 4:04.32 to win the girls’ 1,600 relay. Barons coach Brian Bivens said that the quartet has qualified for the Arcadia Invitational.

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BOYS’ TRACK AND FIELD

Beach Cities Invitational

At Huntington Beach High

100 – 1. Welles (Mission Viejo) 10.98; 2. Reyes (Los Alamitos) 11.02; 3. Thomas (Servite) 11.09; 4. Berryman (Mission Viejo) 11.11; 5. Davis (Artesia) 11.12

200 – 1. Plantinga (Huntington Beach) 22.04; 2. Berryman (Mission Viejo) 22.48; 3. Thomas (Servite) 22.51; 4. Reyes (Los Alamitos) 22.73; 5. Davis (Artesia) 22.74

400 – 1. Plantinga (Huntington Beach) 50.09; 2. Kaess (Marina) 51.45; 3. Lopez (Valley Christian) 52.80; 4. Hernandez (Troy) 53.07; 5. Elizondo (Canyon) 53.36

800 – 1. Johnson (Los Alamitos) 2:01.03; 2. Shaper (Thacher) 2:01.28; 3. Means (Corona del Mar) 2:02.14; 4. Gomez (Warren) 2:02.68; 5. Munoz (Warren) 2:02.82

1,600 – 1. Montes (Ocean View) 4:23.15; 2. Atkeson (Thacher) 4:23.68; 3. Amare (Diamond Bar) 4:23.80; 4. Ely (Sunny Hills) 4:24.21; 5. Coney (Canyon) 4:25.32

3,200 – 1. Cervantes (Nogales) 9:35.02; 2. Alcaraz (Sunny Hills) 9:39.31; 3. Quinonez (Los Alamitos) 9:42.93; 4. Garity (Granada Hills) 9:49.39; 5. Maldonado (Mayfair) 9:49.68

110HH – 1. Lotfy (Los Alamitos) 14.69; 2. Uballe (Diamond Bar) 14.87; 3. Kimble (Servite) 15.02; 4. Meyer (Mission Viejo) 15.55; 5. Adele (Los Alamitos) 15.62

300IH – 1. Lotfy (Los Alamitos) 39.25; 2. Burns (Mission Viejo) 39.68; 3. Uballe (Diamond Bar) 40.99; 4. West (Costa Mesa) 41.06; 5. Kimble (Servite) 41.497

400 relay – 1. Mission Viejo 42.63; 2. Los Alamitos 42.92, Canyon 43.93; 4. Marina 44.49; 5. Los Alamitos 44.70

1,600 relay – 1. Diamond Bar 3:31.60; 2. Los Alamitos 3:35.32; 3. Marina 3:38.66; 4. Canyon 3:42.74

HJ – 1. Wiseman (Huntington Beach) 6-4; 2. Garnett (Edison) 6-4J; 3. Caldarella (Valley Christian) 5-10; 4. Rameson (Corona del Mar) 5-8; 5. Reynolds (Servite) 5-8J

LJ – 1. Ledezma (Canyon) 22-7¾; 2. Ko (Pacifica) 22-6½; 3. Ayale (Los Alamitos) 21-7; 4. Wright (Corona del Mar) 21-0½; 5. Baladjay (Cerritos) 21-0¼

TJ – 1. Diaz (Marina) 44-0; 2. Ayale (Los Alamitos) 43-10½; 3. Johnson (Canyon) 42-1; 4. Kersey (Los Alamitos) 40-7; 5. Kimura (Los Alamitos) 38-0¾

PV – 1. Magula (Marina) 15-0

SP – 1. Elbettar (Newport Harbor) 62-9½; 2. Duensing (Esperanza) 59-¾; 3. Howard (Los Alamitos) 58-2¼; 4. Porter (Canyon) 49-¾; 5. Nasrallah (Los Alamitos) 47-9½

DT – 1. Elbettar (Newport Harbor) 188-7; 2. Duensing (Esperanza) 169-0; 3. Hashem (Esperanza) 159-10; 4. Bach (Troy) 146-8; 5. Nasrallah (Los Alamitos) 146-7

GIRLS’ TRACK AND FIELD

Beach Cities Invitational

At Huntington Beach High

100 – 1. Light (Norco) 12.33; 2. Paculba (Marina) 12.53; 3. Poland (Los Alamitos) 12.57; 4. Pagaduan (Mission Viejo) 12.59; 5. Rosenthal (Los Alamitos) 12.82

200 – 1. Light (Norco) 25.10; 2. Poland (Los Alamitos) 25.38; 3. Pagaduan (Mission Viejo) 25.68; 4. Hoffer (Edison) 25.73; 5. Johnson (Mission Viejo) 26.37

400 – 1. Limp (Los Alamitos) 58.70; 2. Kolster (Los Alamitos) 59.65; 3. Dang (Corona del Mar) 59.80; 4. Lopez (Fountain Valley) 1:00.49; 5. Harris (Corona del Mar) 1:00.57

800 – 1. Fulwiler (Mission Viejo) 2:20.51; 2. Ellis (Marina) 2:21.89; 3. Velasco (Los Alamitos) 2:21.96; 4. Olson (Fountain Valley) 2:22.77; 5. Gurrera (Los Alamitos) 2:25.66

1,600 – 1. Feitz (Fountain Valley) 5:10.85; 2. Gallegos (Fountain Valley) 5:12.63; 3. Molina (Costa Mesa) 5:13.82; 4. Guerra (Fountain Valley) 5:15.47; 5. Bergman (Sonora) 5:16.35

3,200 – 1. Molina (Costa Mesa) 11:06.43; 2. Rubalcava (Canyon) 11:44.51; 3. Liera (Warren) 11:56.67; 4. Guerra (Warren) 12:01.37; 5. Hughes (Granada Hills) 12:03.81

100HH – 1. DelVecchio (Thacher) 15.65; 2. Ales (Troy) 16.02; 3. Weiss (Edison) 16.08; 4. Moon-Rumsey (Huntington Beach) 16.22; 5. Huang (Oxford Academy) 16.24

300IH – 1. Ales (Troy) 46.03; 2. Damron (Corona del Mar) 46.79; 3. Nelson (Los Alamitos) 48.86; 4. Martino (Mission Viejo) 49.57; 5. Spresney (Valley Christian) 49.69

400 relay – 1. Los Alamitos 48.44; 2. Mission Viejo 49.94; 3. Marina 50.83; 4. San Pedro 51.15; 5. Canyon 51.37

1,600 relay – 1. Fountain Valley 4:04.32; 2. Los Alamitos 4:05.07; 3. Canyon 4:34.14

HJ – 1. Chin (Huntington Beach) 5-3; 2. Gruber (Marina) 5-1; 3. Wright (Los Alamitos) 5-1J; 4. St. George (Thacher) 5-1J; 5. Kirk (Los Alamitos) 4-11

LJ – 1. Kirk (Los Alamitos) 17-0; 2. Jezek (Mission Viejo) 16-9¼; 3. Gruber (Marina) 16-0; 4. Cargile (Corona del Mar) 16-0J; 5. Keough (Edison) 15-7¼

TJ – 1. Kirk (Los Alamitos) 34-5¼; 2. Pham (Huntington Beach) 32-8¼; 3. Laughlin (Rosary) 32-2½; 4. Truong (Fountain Valley) 32-2¼; 5. Stallworth (Troy) 32-2¼J

PV – 1. Millar (Los Alamitos) 11-0; 2. Espeleta (Huntington Beach) 10-3; 3. Nguyen (Cerritos) 9-9; 4. Gavia (Fountain Valley) 9-3; 5. Peterson (Fountain Valley) 8-9

SP – 1. Butterbaugh (Mission Viejo) 42-4; 2. Venglass (Rancho Cucamonga) 38-7¼; 3. Rosales (Marina) 37-10¼; 4. Togafau (Fountain Valley) 37-1¼; 5. Lister (Mission Viejo) 35-3

DT – 1. Wilkerson (Trabuco Hills) 137-0; 2. Rosales (Marina) 130-9; 3. Butterbaugh (Mission Viejo) 126-1; 4. Lister (Mission Viejo) 122-8; 5. Robbins (Esperanza) 120-3

andrew.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner