CdM wins meet

In Corona del Mar High Coach Bill Sumner’s big plan, his girls cross

country team appears to be right on schedule.

The Sea Kings proved they are meeting expectations, as they won

the Division II team title at the Sunny Hills Invitational. For the

second consecutive race, freshman Hilary May led CdM with a

third-place finish in 19:03. Senior Taryn Kawata also contributed to

the win, finishing in 19:27. Sophomore Annie St. Geme followed in

19:40, while juniors Ahlia Kattan (19:48), Devon Ahearn (19:58) and

Melissa Swigert (20:06) and senior Jen Logan (20:30) rounded out the

Sea Kings’ strong showing.

Sumner was also impressed with the efforts of freshmen Christie

St. Geme and Nichole Slykhous.

“We’re in good shape right now,” Sumner said. “These first two

invitationals have been like hard training runs for us. The kids have

been sticking to the plan and it made for a real nice team time. It

was a good outing for us. Our big thing now is that we’re getting

ready for the Stanford Invitational next week.”

Day sizzles in debut

* COSTA MESA: Costa Mesa High sophomore Jasmine Day made the most

of her first cross country race and won the Division III and IV race

at the Woodbridge Invitational Saturday.

Day, also a soccer standout who is in her first season competing

in cross country, finished in 18:06 to lead the Mustangs to a

third-place finish in the combined group of Division III and IV.

“The girls did awesome,” Costa Mesa Coach Joe Busi said. “We had

four girls running before 19 minutes and with Jazzy winning that

makes us a strong team. It looks very promising.”

Senior Christine Bjelland finished seventh for the Mustangs in

18:28, while Emily Cotton followed in ninth (18:35). Kyle Flores,

finishing 21st (19:06) also contributed for Costa Mesa, while Ana

Rodriguez (21:02) and Alex Marquez (21:03) also provided excitement

and satisfaction for Busi.

Busi said the Costa Mesa boys finished fourth in the senior race,

as the Woodbridge Invitational had class divisions for the boys

races. Marco Huipe was the top finisher for the Mustangs. Times were

not available.

Paul leads Sailors

* NEWPORT HARBOR: Newport Harbor High Coach Eric Tweit made a

statement before the season started, that senior Lauren Paul is one

of the top cross country runners in Orange County. On Saturday, Paul

backed up that statement by finishing second in Division II of the

Woodbridge Invitational.

Paul finished with a personal-best 17:56, coming in behind

Agoura’s Lisa Novak, who finished in 17:44.

“Lauren just keeps getting better,” Tweit said. “And, she has room

for improvement, but she is running so much smarter.”

Newport junior Caitlin Mai, sophomore Whitney Blue, freshman

Lauren Maddox and Amy Penner also achieved personal records, making

Tweit overly pleased.

Mai finished 26th (19:22), Blue came in 34th (19:38), Maddox

followed in 38th (19:46) and Penner also clocked a respectable time

(20:19). Sophomore Amy Klippert, who arrived minutes after playing a

club soccer game, finished in 20:47.

The Newport Harbor girls finished fifth out of the 23 schools in

Division II, which had 148 runners in the race.

Tweit also came away impressed with freshmen Lily Dierkes (20:31)

and Taylor Bryson (20:35), who finished 10th and 11th, respectively

in the frosh/soph race, while Balir Zeiser clocked a 21:00 in the

junior varsity race.

McGann paces Sage Hill

* SAGE HILL: Mollie McGann placed 20th (21:23) in the frosh-soph

girls race of 200 runners followed by Erica Faris (22:22), good for

41st.

Sage Hill returns to action Saturday at the Dana Hills

Invitational before its first Academy League meet Sept. 30 against

Capistrano Valley Christian.