All area teams advance to Southern Section finals

x-country prelims story for SundayCorona del Mar girls take top five spots in heat and record second-best time ever on Mount San Antonio course Saturday.WALNUT -- All seven Newport-Mesa high school cross country teams and Kenny Rakestraw, competing individually, qualified for CIF Southern Section finals with their performances in the CIF preliminaries Saturday at Mount San Antonio College.

On a day with several standout performances, no one was better than the Corona del Mar High girls’ team. The Sea Kings boasted the first five finishers in their CIF Division III heat, recording a team time of 1:31:53 -- the second best mark for any girls’ team on the Mount SAC course and the best girls’ team time of the day.

“The girls had a very good workout, they had a job to do,” Corona del Mar Coach Bill Sumner said. “Did I think they’d finish one through five? No. That’s not what I intended. We wanted to go hard the first two miles then cruise to the finish. To get the second-fastest team time on this course with that plan is a good sign.”

Annie St. Geme led the way with a first-place time of 16:58. Sarah Cummings was second in 17:54 and Allison Damon finished third with time of 18:56. Shelby Buckley followed at 19:01 and Nicole Slykhous took fifth in 19:04 for the Sea Kings, who finished with a perfect 15 points.

“My two-mile time was 11:12,” St. Geme said. “I felt fatigued at that point and I coasted in with what I had left. Next week we probably won’t be running the same way. I’m not sure what the plan will be next week.”

The second-place team in Corona del Mar’s heat, Santa Margarita (82 points), was almost 10 minutes behind (1:41:26).

The Newport Harbor girls also had a dominating performance, taking first place in their heat with a time of 1:35:05 -- the fourth-best girls’ team time of the day. Whitney Blue led the way with a first-place time of 17:43. Melissa Mead was fifth in 19:03, Erica Pearson finished seventh (19:25), Lauren Maddox and Taylor Bryson tied for ninth (19:27) for the Sailors (32 points), who advance to the CIF finals Saturday at Mount SAC.

The Estancia High girls finished fifth in their Division III heat, but had the best time (1:44:27) of the fifth-place teams in the three heats to earn the at-large spot for the CIF finals on Saturday.

Sydney Barloon led the way with a third-place time of 19:23. Paula Negrete was 13th in 20:28, Magali Onofre finished 17th in 20:59, Karina Rios was 30th in 21:34 and Sindi Ramirez finished 34th in 22:03.

“For me it was all about finishing in the top eight, so I’m very happy with taking third,” Barloon said. “I wanted to go hard for my team.”

The Sage Hill girls also qualified for the CIF finals by finishing fourth, clocking a combined time of 1:47:55 in their Division V heat.

Katie McKeon had a first-place time of 20:16. Cait Williamson was 24th with a time of 21:32, McKenzie Muhannon was 26th in 21:40, Aiyana Bobrownicki finished 29th with a time of 21:47 and Kelsey Rose was 44th in 22:40.

“We hopefully set ourselves up for advancing to state,” Sage Hill Coach Nate Miller said.

On the boys’ side, Estancia advanced by taking fourth place in its Division III heat with 108 points. Tito Castaneda led the way with a first-place time of 15:36.

“That was really surprising,” Castaneda said. “I thought I’d get second place at the most. I was just running my race, going steady, then I picked it up at the end.”

Hector Gomez was 11th (16:23), C.J. Buchmann finished 19th (16:39), Wes Barloon was 35th (17:20) and Enrique Vivar finished 45th (17:38) for Estancia.

The Corona del Mar boys took first place in their Division III heat with a team time of 1:22:10. All seven runners finished in the top 20 in their heat.

Tim Scott led the way with a seventh-place time of 16:04. Scott was followed by Kenneth Wong (ninth in 16:17), Ryan Guthrie (11th in 16:32), Thomas Dialynas (13th in 16:37) and Tommy Hutchison (15th in 16:40).

Jack Turner (16:42) and Brian Licorish (16:48) were also in the top 20. The Sea Kings’ first and seventh runner were only 44 seconds apart.

“I think we got the momentum we wanted going into next week,” Sumner said.

The Sage Hill boys earned fourth place with a combined time of 1:29:36 in their Division V heat to advance. Connor Rose led the way with a third-place time of 17:19, Tyler Ellis finished fourth in 17:20, Zach Chandy (11th in 17:50), Sean McElroy (20th in 18:08) and Conrad Whitaker (33rd in 18:59) followed for the Lightning.

Newport Harbor High’s Rakestraw, competing individually, advanced to the CIF finals with a sixth-place time of 15:50 in his Division II heat.