St. Geme leads the pack

ARCADIA ? Not long after setting a meet record by winning the girls’ seeded mile Saturday at the Arcadia Invitational, Corona del Mar High senior Annie St. Geme said she is looking forward to a little down time, then the fast-approaching postseason.

But in order to check out her competition on the track at Arcadia High, she needed to look at least 10 yards behind her.

“After last week [a meet-record 4 minutes, 43.10 seconds in the 1,600 at the Trabuco Hills Invitational that was the fastest time in the nation this season], I had a lot of confidence in myself,” said St. Geme, who bolted to the front and remained there Friday on her way to a time of 4:46.10. “I was hoping to break the meet record here and that’s what I did.”

Her time might have been even faster, had she not let her adrenaline get the best of her in a blistering second lap.

“I saw 36 [halfway through the second 400], so I was on 72-second pace,” St. Geme, who anchored the Sea Kings’ victory in the distance medley relay and was named Girls’ Athlete of the Meet, said. “But I heard my coach [Bill Sumner] and I could tell by his tone that he wanted me to pick it up a little. I did, but I didn’t know I was running that fast.”

St. Geme said her 66-second second lap took something out of her, but she continued to press on, even into the face of a fairly substantial late-afternoon breeze.

“The wind wasn’t in my mind at all,” said St. Geme, who said her first healthy cross-country season last fall is now paying big dividends.

“I just feel so much stronger, because of cross country,” she said. “My leg speed is the same as last year, but I’m just a lot stronger.”

Sumner said the race was slower than expected early.

“Nobody wanted to go,” he said. “But after the first 200, Annie took over.”

There figure to be stronger performances ahead, but St. Geme said she would compete only in the 4x1,600 relay at next week’s Mount SAC Invitational.

“I’m looking forward to a little down time, running for my team and focusing on my workouts,” St. Geme said.

“It’s only March, so this is the middle,” Sumner said. “People forget we do this little thing in May called the [CIF] State Championships.”

As to her growing stature on the national scene, St. Geme appears to be unaffected.

“I respect all these girls,” she said of her overmatched competition. “Someone said ‘You’re so awesome,’ and I said, ‘Are you kidding me, you are too.’ ”

St. Geme’s 1,600 anchor leg in the distance medley helped the Sea Kings post a meet record in 11:42.86.

The old meet record was 11:51.66, set by Corona del Mar last year. This year’s mark was 1.58 seconds off the national record that Sumner said, coming in, his team had a chance to beat.

Sumner’s stopwatch unofficially clocked Sarah Cummings with a 1,200 leadoff leg of 3:44. Kelly Morgan followed with an unofficial 1:00.1 split in the 400, followed by Shelby Buckley’s estimated 800 split of 2:14.5.

Buckley cut a 90-yard deficit in half during her leg and St. Geme needed just more than one lap to pass a competitor from Woodbridge to take the lead for good. Sumner’s watch had St. Geme completing her 1,600 in 4:44.

“We’ll get another shot at the [national] record,” Sumner said.

There were other strong performances from Newport-Mesa athletes Saturday.