CdM girls, boys advance to CIF

Chris Yemma

For some cross country meets, Corona del Mar High Coach Bill Sumner

tells his team to take it easy and save it for later in the season.

For other meets he designates more important, he tells his runners to

go all out.

Thursday’s Pacific Coast League finals at Irvine Park fell into

the latter category. Sumner needed his boys team to win the meet to

fall into a three-way tie with Laguna Beach and Northwood for the

league title.

And he needed his girls team to win to keep their foothold atop

the league.

After the scores were tallied, Sumner got half of what he was

hoping for.

The girls team finished first and retained sole possession of

first in the league at 6-0. The boys finished second in the finals

and second in the league behind Laguna Beach.

“Today was a give it all day,” Sumner said. “The boys went out

hard, I gambled a little and the worst I had hoped for was third. The

girls were just business as usual.”

Junior Anne St. Geme was the business conductor for the Sea Kings,

placing first overall in 17 minutes, 45 seconds out of 37 runners

from CdM, Calvary Chapel, University, Tesoro, Northwood and Laguna

Beach.

“[Winning] league was a goal of ours,” said St. Geme, as she

nursed her previously injured foot in a bucket of ice water. “This is

my second true race back [after injuring herself at the Sunny Hills

invitational Sept. 18], so I was using endurance and strength I had

gained from the last track season.”

St. Geme added that she placed first last year in the same

competition with the same time.

The girls team finished with 36 points, followed by Northwood with

48, Tesoro (65), Laguna Beach (112) and University (114).

Sumner said he told St. Geme to go all out in this meet, but after

she took a sizable lead after the first two miles, he told her to

slow it down so as not to risk a re- injury.

“She’s not quite 100 percent yet,” Sumner said. “Her foot is about

98 percent and her conditioning is about 90 percent.”

Allison Damon (third in 18:03), Hilary May (10th in 18:35), Nicole

Slykhous (12th in 18:48) and Ahlia Kattan (14th in 18:55) were the

top five finishers for CdM.

With the second-place finish, the CdM boys will advance to the CIF

Southern Section Division III preliminaries Nov. 13 at Mt. San

Antonio College for the 20th straight year. But for both the girls

and the boys, Sumner has higher expectations.

“I don’t want to sound cocky,” he said, “but I 100 percent expect

to see Anne St. Geme, to go all the way to state and be our No. 1

runner.

“And the boys, after they finished [Thursday’s] race, came up to

me and asked me if we were going to the CIF prelims. I told them of

course we’re going, we’re going all the way to Fresno.”

Ryan Guthrie placed first for CdM and third overall in 15:32 at

Irvine Park Thursday. Kenneth Wong (12th in 16:15), Tim Scott (13th

in 16:16), Jack Turner (14th in 16:21) and Paris Salgado (20th in

16:31) were the rest of the point scorers for the Sea Kings.

Laguna Beach finished with 26 points, CdM with 61, Tesoro 67,

Northwood 80 and University 116.

“This is the best I’ve ever run,” said Guthrie after crossing the

finish line. “It was a [personal record] for me by more than 30

seconds. It was a great day for me, but more importantly the team.

We’re hoping for far more with the team.”

Second CdM finisher Wong affirmed Sumner’s goals after finishing

Thursday’s race.

“We would have really liked to win league, and we tried all

season,” he said. “But our biggest goal is to get to state, and we

will get there.”