Briefs: Lillig earns honor

UC Irvine’s Colleen Lillig has been named the Big West Conference Freshman of the Year in women’s cross country.

Lillig was the top freshman finisher at the Big West Championships Oct. 30 with a 23rd-place showing of 21 minutes, 29.5 seconds over the 6,000-meter course at the UC Riverside Agricultural Operations Course. That was the fastest time ever run by a UCI true freshman on that course.

Lillig has been UCI’s No. 1 runner in four of five races this fall, finishing fourth at the Cal Poly Invitational, fifth at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational and 14th at the Asics/UCI Invitational in addition to her 23rd place at the conference meet.

She placed 47th of 212 runners at the Stanford Invitational, finishing one second behind UCI junior Katherine Nielsen.

Lillig and her teammates compete in the NCAA West Regional at Springfield, Ore., Nov. 13.

— From staff reports

CdM wins tourney

The Corona del Mar High frosh-soph team captured the Grey Lunde Memorial Tournament championship with a 7-2 win over Back Bay rival Newport Harbor Oct. 30.

The Sea Kings’ championship team includes: Jake Barber, Richie Barden, Reid Chase, Kyle Cousens, Brendan FisherIan Givant, Ty Hack, Jack Harryman, Jonah Husted, Danny Marshall, Armen Mavusi, Patrick McKenzie, Blake Motal, Ryon Sabouni, Kyle Trush, Colby Watson, Jake Wyatt.

Kareem Captan coaches the team.

— From staff reports

Newport sailing stellar in regatta

A group of Newport Harbor High girls’ sailing teams performed well at the All-Girls Regatta in San Diego Oct. 23-24, as teams took second, fourth and sixth place.

Corona del Mar also had three teams competing, finishing seventh, 10th and 12th.

Newport Harbor’s team that finished second consisted of Greer Watson, Nicole Grice, Carolyn Smith and Jackie Cappellini.

Erin Kincaid, Shelley Grice, Francesca Cappellini and Bianca Barnes were on the team that finished fourth.

The third Newport team had Bayley Davidson, Sally Fuller, Katie Calder, Victoria Lewis, Shannon Barth and Megan Roach, who finished sixth out of 12 teams from high schools across California.

— From staff reports

Taylor recognized

UC Irvine’s Tanya Taylor, a forward on the women’s soccer team, was named to the ESPN Academic All-District 8 third team by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Taylor keyed the Anteaters’ success this season, leading Coach Scott Juniper’s squad to its first regular-season conference crown with an undefeated 8-0 record. UCI, ranked No. 11 in the country, becomes the first team in Big West history to complete the conference schedule unbeaten or untied. Taylor, the conference leader in goals (10), assists (nine) and points (29) is also ranked 22nd in the nation in assists and 34th in points per game (1.53).

The criminology, law and society major is the Big West’s most potent offensive player and has garnered three conference offensive player of the week awards.

The Anteaters (17-1-2) will play host to No. 2 seed Long Beach State Sunday for the Big West Tournament championship at noon at Anteater Stadium. This will be UCI’s third trip to the Big West Tournament final and first since they won the 1997 title in a 3-2 win against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

— From staff reports