Sea Kings want to be leaders again at OC race

Follow the leader is how Corona del Mar High girls’ cross country coach Bill Sumner sees it.

At the big meets, the Sea Kings, the reigning CIF State Division III champs, always seem to be the target.

“Everybody follows us around,” said Sumner recently. “We usually take all comers.”

Now CdM finds itself being the chaser when it competes in the 41st annual Orange County Championships at Irvine Regional Park in Orange today. The defending county champ is ranked third in CIF Southern Section Division III, behind top-ranked Orange Lutheran.

Orange Lutheran is in the sweepstakes race, along with CdM and Newport Harbor. The event is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m., one of 18 races starting as early as 7:30 a.m. untilbefore noon.

Sumner said his girls, led by standouts Shelby Buckley and Allison Damon, are ready to get back on top after finishing third behind Orange Lutheran at the Stanford Invitational Division III meet. Buckley took fifth last year at 17 minutes, 40 seconds and Damon 11th at 17:54, and the twosome will need similar results if CdM hopes to claim its third county championship in a row.

“I don’t remember Orange Lutheran ever finishing ahead of us in my 25 years at CdM,” said Sumner of the event in which Oak Park, another team Sumner said beat CdM for the first time in four years, won. “We’re ranked fourth in Orange County. That’s good for somebody else. We want to be better.”

The girls’ sweepstakes race won’t be the only highlight of today. The boys’ sweepstakes race has cross-town rivals in No. 3 Newport Harbor and No. 7 Corona del Mar, which placed third and first, respectively, last year in the Division II event.

The Sailors are fresh off from winning the Clovis Invitational large schools division title at Fresno’s Woodward Park, the host site to the state finals. Treating it as sort of a practice, Coach Nowell Kay has his Sailors on the right path. Reaching state for the first time in his six years as boys’ head coach is attainable with the way Mike Puncel, Rex Nelson, Jake Dawson, Alex Crawford and Michael Taylor are running.

Other locals competing include Sage Hill, Costa Mesa and Estancia in the Division III girls’ race at 10 a.m. In the Division III boys’ race at 10:45 a.m., Costa Mesa and Sage Hill will run. The Lightning last year placed in the top 10 in their respective races.

Estancia’s boys enter the Division II competition at 10:30 a.m. with Orange Coast League foe Laguna Beach, No. 6 in Division IV.

The Eagles are running well, taking seventh in the Division IV race at the Clovis Invitational. Fernando Orozco, who finished seventh at 16:29, leads a solid group consisting of Jorge Martin, Wes Barloon, Damian Leon and Miguel Perez.

— David Carrillo Peñaloza