Kingpins

CORONA DEL MAR - Sea Kings’ cross country coach Bill Sumner is

feeling pretty tall today following the revelation that his girls team,

which ran away from Division IV competition at the Stanford Invitational

Saturday, did more than meets the eye.

Based on final finishes his girls proved to be No. 1 in the entire

130-team field of schools, ranging from the cream of California, to

entries from Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Utah and other points.

Through five runners the Sea Kings were in a flat-footed tie with

powerhouse San Lorenzo, but when the sixth runner of each school was

considered to break the tie for overall kingpin, it was CdM in a

cakewalk, thanks to Katherine Morse’s 20:27, which was 14th overall on

the 3.1-mile course.

“This should get us a good national ranking,” said Sumner.

Corona’s first five runners, whose marks counted toward the Division IV

crown, were Liz Morse (first in 18:58), Katie Quinlan (fifth in 19:38),

Jenny Cummins (sixth in 19:50), Season Meservey (8th in 19:58) and Diana Hossfeld (11th in 20:05.)

CdM’s Jill Quye, who fell violently enough at the start to dislodge the

paper number clipped to her singlet, recovered to clock a 21:22, for 45th

place.

It was the third straight division crown at the prestigious race, which

allows the Sea Kings to gauge their state meet competition from Northern

California.

The CdM boys finished fourth in Division IV, but thoroughly impressed

Sumner.

Juniors Travis Beardslee (16:19) and Josh Yelsey (16:34) placed fourth

and eighth, respectively for the Sea Kings, whose 174 team points were

bested by Central Valley (93), Oak Park (97) and San Francisco-based St.

Augustine (159).

Kevin Kramer (40th in 17:38), Jud Heitbrink (44th in 17:47), David

Mittman (79th in 18:31), Dustin Hodges (18:35) and Ben Inouye (18:52)

also competed well for CdM.

“Travis ran a very, very good race and Josh stayed pretty close to him,”

Sumner said. “And that was Mittman’s best race of the year.”