Sea Kings piece together win

LAGUNA HILLS — For most high school cross country teams, Saturday’s Laguna Hills Invitational was the first meet of the season.

Corona del Mar High Coach Bill Sumner said the meet, held at Laguna Hills High, was like a pop quiz.

His girls’ team aced the test.

For the second straight year, Corona del Mar had the fastest overall girls’ time at the meet, which divided the three-mile races by class and division.

Senior Sarah Cummings (17 minutes, 48 seconds), juniors Shelby Buckley (18:20), Allison Damon (18:30) and Alison Gushue (19:34), as well as sophomore Laura Bilder (18:58) combined for a time of 1:32:37, which beat second-place Woodbridge by more than three minutes.

Newport Harbor (1:36:36) was third.

Corona del Mar is the defending CIF Division III state champion. The Sea Kings also had the fastest team time in the Division III junior race, earning a plaque.

Individually, Cummings won the Division III senior race and had the second-fastest time of the day overall.

Fellow Sea Kings seniors Hilary May (19:01) and Nichole Slykhous (19:53) were third and fourth, respectively, in the Division III senior race.

“Today’s about figuring out what we need to work on,” Sumner said. “The older kids have experience and just have a few things to work on, while the younger kids have to work on everything. We’re not looking for this part of the season to be big, but we had some good results today.”

Buckley, Damon and Gushue finished first, third and fourth, respectively, in the Division III race.

“[Sumner] wanted us to stay together for the first two miles, then pick up the tempo,” said Buckley, who won the CIF Division III state title as a freshman at Rosary High in 2004. “It’s a fun meet, so we can see where we are in our training.”

Newport Harbor also did well. Melissa Mead (19:00) finished second and Taylor Bryson (19:04) third in the Division II senior race. The Sailors’ Lauren Maddox (19:25) was fifth.

“It’s a good course to start off the year with,” Bryson said. “It has got some nice hills for a good workout.”

Costa Mesa High’s Emily Cotton — the only senior girl running on Saturday for the young Mustangs — was seventh in the Division III senior race with her time of 20:35.

“That’s just about my normal time,” said Cotton, after the first race of her fourth varsity season. “This meet is pretty much just setting us up for the season; it’s our start mark. So, hopefully, I’ll get faster.”

Six locals finished in the top 11 of the Division III sophomore race.

Bilder of CdM won the race, Sage Hill’s Cait Williamson (20:26) was fourth, Estancia’s Alexa Aguilar (20:31) was sixth and Sage Hill’s Aiyana Bobrownicki (20:38) was eighth.

CdM’s Connor Carreras and Estancia’s Sindey Ramirez (20:43) tied for 10th.

Desiree Alexander of Newport Harbor (19:17) was fourth in the Division II sophomore race, while Sarah Keddington of CdM (20:35) placed fifth in the Division III freshman race.