CdM girls remain tops in OC

ORANGE — Corona del Mar High cross country coach Bill Sumner walked over to his varsity girls’ team.

The Sea Kings had just completed their Division I Sweepstakes race at the Orange County Championships, held at Irvine Regional Park on Saturday.

Sumner had a gleam in his eye as he half-rhetorically quizzed his runners.

“Did we get the score? Who won?” he asked.

It wasn’t much of a mystery.

Senior Sarah Cummings placed third in 17 minutes, 14 seconds and junior Shelby Buckley (17:40) was fifth, as CdM easily won the race for the second straight year with a team time of 1 hour, 29 minutes, 22 seconds.

Also scoring for the Sea Kings, the defending CIF Division III state champions and currently ranked No. 1 in CIF Southern Section Division III, were Allison Damon (11th, 17:54), Laura Bilder (19th, 18:12) and Alison Gushue (24th, 18:22). Those times helped Corona del Mar beat second-place Fountain Valley (1:30:39) by over a minute.

Newport Harbor (1:32:54) was third on the three-mile course.

The Sea Kings’ team time was also the best overall girls’ time at the meet.

“All we heard about for the last few weeks was how Fountain Valley runs a lot of miles,” Sumner said. “But that’s a misconception. Running far doesn’t necessarily mean running hard.”

Corona del Mar definitely ran hard on Saturday, on a course that was somewhat damp from the previous night’s rain.

Cummings was in the first group of three runners for much of the race. Although she couldn’t quite catch Christine Babcock of Woodbridge — who finished second in the state last year — Cummings said she said she was very happy with the race.

Babock won in 16:36. Fountain Valley’s Elizabeth Coe came in second at 16:54.

“We were shooting for [Babock], but it didn’t happen today,” Cummings said. “This wasn’t a walk in the park for us. We knew we had competition coming in, but we were ready for it. We had a really good run at the Stanford Invitational [on Sept. 30], so we’re still coming off of that and we feel real good.”

Sumner said the team hasn’t been fazed since the graduation of Annie St. Geme, now at Stanford.

St. Geme won the 2005 Orange County Championships Sweepstakes race and went on to win the Division III state cross country individual title.

“It’s just the reality of cross country,” Sumner said. “We lost a minute when we lost Annie, but if each of the five scoring girls improve by 12 seconds, then we’re as good as we were last year. Every 10 or 20 years you get an Annie, so if you count on Annie, then you can’t build a team. We’re doing OK without her; we’re ranked No. 2 in the country (according to dyestat.com).”

Buckley, who won the CIF Division III state championship as a freshman at Rosary, said the Corona del Mar team camaraderie has been solid all year.

“It’s been a really fun year, and we’re all becoming more bonded and closer,” Buckley said. “That should bring us more success as a team.”

Although the team was happy with its performance, Sumner said the Sea Kings know that they must keep getting faster.

Improvements seem neverending for Sumner’s program.

“There’s bragging rights, but it’s very temporary,” he said. “Whatever you get today, it’s only good for about a week. We’re trying to get healthy and fast by November. We’re not quite ready yet to lay all the cards on the table.”

Orange County Championships

Girls Sweepstakes

1. Babcock (Woodbridge), 16:36; 2. Coe (Fountain Valley), 16:54; 3. Cummings (CdM), 17:14; 4. Hayes (Edison), 17:35; 5. Buckley (CdM), 17:40; 6. Nielson (Irvine), 17:42; 7. Hancock (Brea), 17:44; 8. Meyer (Tesoro), 17:45; 9. Foley (Edison), 17:52; 10. Toberty (Woodbridge), 17:53.

Others: 11. Damon (CdM), 17:54; 13. Mead (NH), 18:06; 19. Bilder (CdM), 18:12; 24. Gushue (CdM), 18:22; 26. Bryson (NH), 18:26; 28. Slykhous (CdM), 18:32; 30. Alexander (NH), 18:39; 37. Ditty (NH), 18:44; 41. May (CdM), 18:46; 53. Cain (NH), 18:59; 64. Maddox (NH), 19:14.