Sea Kings roll lucky seven into finals

DOWNEY ? It seemed like everywhere Corona Del Mar High senior Annie St. Geme went Saturday at the CIF Southern Section Division III track preliminaries, sophomore Shelby Buckley followed. That is, until the last event.

At that point, it was Buckley’s turn to hand the baton to St. Geme for the last leg of a heat-winning 4x400 meter relay. The Sea Kings finished with a season-best time of 3 minutes, 59.60 seconds.

“Coach (Bill Sumner) just knows his stuff, he knows how to work with the girls,” said Buckley, who qualified second behind St. Geme in both the 1,600 and 3,200 meters. “We all trust him, because we know he’s successful.”

Buckley and St. Geme were just two of several athletes from Corona Del Mar, Costa Mesa and Estancia who advanced to next weekend’s Division III finals by placing in the top nine in their event at Warren High.

Estancia’s Ryan Whites qualified in both the 110 and 300 hurdles, as did teammate Ernesto Castaneda in the 3,200 meters. The Sea Kings’ Tim Scott was the only other local boy to advance, qualifying eighth in the 1,600 meters.

For the girls, St. Geme ? the defending state champion in the 1,600 meters ? qualified first by wide margins in that event and the 3,200, followed in second both times by Buckley. St. Geme also advanced in the 800.

Costa Mesa’s Jasmine Day tied for first in the high jump with her leap of 5 feet, 3 inches, and Corona Del Mar freshman Hillary May moved on with a fourth-place finish in the 800 meters. Sea King jumper Tiffany Liu advanced in the long jump and just missed with a 10th place finish in the triple jump.

Day, who was second in the high jump at the state championships last year, said she felt good as her senior year entered the postseason. In fact, she said her high jumping probably hurt her non-qualifying hurdles efforts on Saturday.

“My jumping felt pretty good today,” she said, adding that she hopes to clear 5-9 ? and possibly 6-0 ? by the time she’s done with the season. “But I think I jump over the hurdles too high. I’m so used to the high jump.”

The Eagles’ Whites had the hurdles down just fine, winning his heat and taking third in the 110 hurdles and ninth in the 300 hurdles.

“The 110s, I don’t think anyone did really good today, but getting third overall is fine,” said Whites, a junior. “I want to go the Master’s Meet, and next year I probably want to go to state.”

After easily winning the 1,600, St. Geme got a surprise in her 800 heat as she was caught ? and passed ? on the backstretch by San Luis Obispo’s Tonie Williams. But St. Geme, who still qualified in sixth position in the event, shrugged it off.

“It did surprise me; I didn’t think she had the strength,” St. Geme said. “But I’ve been running the races to put less stress on my body. The next three weeks are going to be a lot harder. I wanted to qualify for next weekend as easily as possible.”

She came back for an easy qualifying victory in the 3,200, which Sumner said he liked to see.

“We were expecting a little more out of the half-mile, but there’s so many bodies at qualifying,” he said. “We’re pretty happy with how we did. We won’t need a bus next week, but we’ll definitely come up in a van.”

The Costa Mesa boys’ 4x400 team had some difficulties in the relay and was ultimately disqualified. But for juniors Gilbert Johnson, Daniel Lepper, Josh Lowe and Asa Hawks, it was a growing experience.

“This is our first time getting to CIFs,” Lepper said. “We just came out here and got beat by some better athletes. That’s all right; we’ll be back next year.”

Costa Mesa Coach Diane Bjelland saw only Day advance to next weekend for the Mustangs, but she shared the optimism.

“We’re just thrilled because we had 13 kids qualify overall,” she said. “It’s a great experience, because we had a young team. We’ll be strong next year.”