Natural ability ridden to state

Chris Yemma

Sarah Cummings has been figure skating since she was 5.

But this week she will be going to the state championships in a

completely different sport than the one on ice.

The Corona del Mar High sophomore performed a double axel to vault

her way from the second alternate spot of the CIF Southern Section

track and field Masters Meet, to the CIF State preliminary race

Friday, with a chance to compete for a state championship in the

1,600 meters.

But she has been figure skating since she was 5. And more

surprisingly, she has only been competitively running since the fall.

Don’t call it beginner’s luck, though, because at CdM, running

just comes natural for many athletes.

“Using my brain and her talent, she does exactly what she needs to

do,” Sea Kings’ Coach Bill Sumner said. “And she keeps getting

results week after week. She comes to meets and always has a few

questions. She’s trying to get to the next page.”

Cummings’ brief, pre-meet question-and-answer sessions with Sumner

have transformed the natural figure skater into a natural runner.

According to Cummings, Sumner noticed her running abilities at the

Newport Coast Adventure race in the fall, and asked her to try out

for the cross country team. She competed on junior varsity during her

first race and won the Pacific Coast League title. After being moved

up to varsity, she finished third for the team in her first race --

the Southern Section Division III preliminaries.

“Her first race, she was pretty natural,” Sumner said. “She needed

very little coaching.”

And now Cummings has another new passion.

“After the [cross country] season progressed I got more and more

involved,” she said. “I really love it now. [Skating and running] are

both my main focus.”

Cummings skates under the guidance of renown instructor Ken

Congemi at the HealthSouth Center in El Segundo three days a week.

She then comes home and does distance running as part of her workout

regiment. She trains with Sumner twice a week on the track at CdM,

she said.

The training has all been building up to Friday, when Cummings

will be running in the state championship 1,600 qualifying race,

along with teammate Annie St. Geme. It marks the second straight year

CdM has sent two girls in the same race to the state meet -- last

season it was Hilary May with St. Geme in the 1,600.

This season, Cummings is taking the spot left behind by May, the

fastest freshman in the state last year in the 1,600. May was ailed

with the flu during the CIF finals, Sumner said, and did not qualify

for the Masters Meet, the event which serves as the state qualifier.

“She fits right in there with the rest of them,” Sumner said of

Cummings. “It’s kind of funny -- you look around and see all the good

[running] genes. We have very gifted athletes and we have very

hard-working ones. [Cummings] falls somewhere in the middle -- half

hard work and half talent.”

In her postseason rise to track and field elite status, Cummings’

times have been consistently dropping. She clocked 5 minutes, 13.20

seconds at league finals; 5:06.48 at the Southern Section Division

III preliminaries; 5:02.37 at the divisional finals; and 4:59.59 at

the Masters Meet to qualify for the trip to Sacramento.

And now she could have one, or even two races left this season to

improve her time even more. The top nine qualifiers advance to the

championship race.

“She’s been inching along all season,” Sumner said. “She’s a very

coachable kid.”