Newport’s Pearson, Sage’s Williamson to Columbia

Sage Hill School senior Cait Williamson and Newport Harbor High senior Erica Pearson have committed to run cross country and track and field at Columbia University next year.

Williamson won three straight Academy League cross country individual titles and was also the 2007 CIF Southern Section cross country champion for Division V.

This past season, Williamson also won the Division III title at the Orange County Championships and won the prestigious Mt. SAC Invitational.

In track and field, Williamson was a two-time-defending Academy League champion in the 800-, 1600- and 3,200-meter events. She was also a CIF Southern Section finalist in the 800 in 2006, the 1,600 in 2007 and in both distances in 2008.

Williamson has a 4.3 grade-point average at Sage Hill, is a National Merit Award finalist, and an AP Scholar with Distinction. She chose Columbia, which has finished second in the eight-team Ivy League in cross country the past two years, after a recruiting process involving Harvard, MIT and Brown.

Pearson, who considered UC Berkeley and Brown University, helped the Sailors place eighth at the CIF State Division II girls’ cross country championships last month.

She finished 25th in 18 minutes, 33 seconds.

During her time at Newport Harbor, Pearson was part of the 2007 state championship cross country team and 2005 and 2006 runner-up teams.

— From staff reports