Quest for state

Bryce Alderton

Corona del Mar High and Estancia cross country teams know these

grounds well.

The Sea King girls have made 15 straight trips to the CIF state

meet at Fresno’s Woodward Park while the Estancia boys have made it

there six times, all qualifying on the course at Mt. San Antonio

College.

Today the CdM girls will race the Mt. SAC course at 9:25 p.m., and

the Sea King and Eagle boys’ run begins at 10:25 a.m. in the CIF

Southern Section Division III Finals for an invitation to Fresno next

week.

Estancia’s Diana Rosete qualified for today’s CIF finals with her

third place finish (19:21) at last week’s CIF preliminaries held at

Mt. SAC and will also race today at 9:25.

Melissa Swigert, Anne St. Geme, Ahlia Kattan, Becky Cummins, Taryn

Kawata, Keelan Cuyler and Sarah Claster lead the CdM girls’ charge

while Kevin Artz, Blake Dillion, Jack Turner, Danny Quinlan, Bo

Weidner, J.C. Turner and Brandon Borcorman anchor the Sea King boys’

side.

Cummins ran to second at last season’s Division III finals with an

18:24 as CdM finished second to La Canada.

Eight times in the 15 trips to the state meet Sumner has taken

both girls and boys teams.

Currently the girls sit in fourth place in Division III, while the

boys rank 10th, but only 50 seconds behind seventh place.

The top seven teams from each division advance to the state meet.

Individually, runners have to either finish in the top 12 or finish

in the top six from teams that don’t advance to state.

Sumner isn’t taking anything for granted.

“We pretty much know the path but nothing is automatic,” Sumner

said. “The team has to show up and run the race.”

But Sumner isn’t happy with advancing to the state meet -- he

wants his teams to win it.

“I’m from the old school of thought where I don’t like to say, “We

made it to the Super Bowl and that’s good enough,’” he said. “We know

we’re the longshot on Saturday, but we know that that’s not the same

as no shot. I don’t mind being the underdog.”

Estancia High’s boys team features Humberto Rojas, Aaron Van Geem,

Alex Cahuantzi, Panfilo Elias, Francisco Morales, Abel Flores, Sean

Zich, Matt Zich and Geraldo Orozco.

Rojas, who took third at last week’s CIF prelims with a 16:04, won

the CIF Division III individual title last season with a 15:25.1

clocking and Rosete took sixth in Division III with a 19:03.5 at last

season’s CIF Finals.

Last season the Eagles finished fourth in the Division III finals,

the best finish of Appell’s 12-year tenure at the school since the

Estancia boys took second in Division IV in 1997. They went on to

finish sixth at the state meet.

This year’s Eagle boys seem to be right on track with past teams,

Appell said.

“Compared to last year we’re about the same, but I’m not sure how

the talent will spread out,” Appell said.

Zich is nursing a hip pointer and Orozco has been hampered with a

cold, Appell said.

By this time of the season, Estancia Coach Charlie Appell said

runners face both a mental and physical strain.

“You race 15 minutes and have to do it again seven days later so

it takes a lot of energy,” Appell said. “It’s also mentally draining

because you have to first get to the show, which means doing well in

league, and then have to place in the top four like last week.”