HIGH SCHOOLS:Hard to keep Damon down

When 20 runners lined up for the 800-meter run at the Trabuco Hills Invitational it spelled trouble for anyone not lined up near the front of the staggered start on Saturday.

Corona del Mar High runners Shelby Buckley, Allison Damon and Hilary May had the inside lane, putting them at the back. Buckley was able to weave her way to the front of the pack and win the event in a time of 2 minutes, 12.46 seconds.

Damon was on the verge of doing the same with 150 meters to go in the two-lap race. As she tried to squeeze through two runners she clipped the spike of one and fell over.

“We were trapped in the back for the first lap,” the Sea Kings junior recalled. “There were a lot of girls and we had to make up ground.”

By comparison, the Arcadia Invitational in 2006 had 11 runners in the same event.

May, who was running nearby, saw what happened.

“I was right behind her, about to pass,” May said. “With 20 girls in the race anything goes. You definitely need to watch out and stay calm in traffic.”

Damon said she heard Corona del Mar assistant coach Ceci St. Geme shouting words of encouragement.

“She said, ‘Get up, jog it out,’ ” Damon said. “I didn’t think of anything else to do.”

So Damon rose to her feet and finished the race, in 16th place ahead of four runners who did not fall.

Throughout the race, Damon said Sea Kings Coach Bill Sumner was telling her she was on pace to eclipse her personal record of 2:15.

“I have the rest of the season to break it,” said Damon, who finished third in the 1,600 earlier in the day.

Sumner said he tried to keep Damon, whose nickname is ‘Killer’, from running in the 4x400 relay later that evening but to no avail.

MORE FROM THE HILLS

Blaine Bolus, who transferred from Sage Hill School to Corona del Mar, picked up a pair of victories in the frosh-soph level at the Trabuco Hills Invitational.

The Sea Kings sophomore won the long jump by over six inches with a mark of 20 feet, 7 1/2 inches and the triple jump by over seven inches with a distance of 43-9 3/4 .

Had Bolus competed in the tournament’s invitational for the triple jump he would have finished fourth place, just over three inches out of second. In the long jump invitational, Bolus would have been in ninth.

Other top-five performers were Newport Harbor junior Sophia Ditty, who won the 3,200 open event on Friday in 11:34.49. Corona del Mar junior Thomas Dialynas finished fourth in the 3,200 open in 9:49.04. Estancia sophomore Fernando Orozco was second in the frosh-soph 1,600 in 4:39.04. Newport Harbor junior Cassidy Gayner was third in the 300 hurdles in 46.67.

DOMINIC PERRONE covers boys’ and girls’ track and field, boys’ golf and boys’ volleyball for the Daily Pilot. He can be reached at (714) 966-4613 or via e-mail at dominic.perrone@latimes.com.