Sixth sweet for CdM

FRESNO — Corona del Mar High girls’ cross country coach Bill Sumner knew before the season this year’s team wouldn’t be the fastest he’d ever had.

But as he watched Saturday at Woodward Park as the Sea Kings’ Nos. 3, 4 and 5 runners crossed the finish line in a group to seal CdM’s sixth state championship, Sumner had another thought.

“I say this is the best team I’ve ever had,” he said. “People take that to mean the fastest times. I’ve had faster teams. The best team, as far as how they’re all connected? I’ve never had a team this connected.”

The Sea Kings, led by junior Melanie Powers’ sixth-place finish in 18 minutes, 6 seconds, scored 94 points to win the CIF Division III championship race ahead of defending champion Orange Lutheran (113) and Santa Rosa Maria Carrillo (151) on the 5-kilometer course.

Championship No. 6 ties CdM with San Francisco University High for the most girls’ state titles all-time.

“Oh my God, it feels great. We really worked hard for this,” said Powers, who mentioned she listened to the course announcer throughout the race and tried to calculate how CdM was doing. “I could hear them yelling the names, and it was really nerve-racking.”

As it turned out, the final tally wasn’t as close as last week’s Southern Section meet, where the Sea Kings took Lutheran’s No. 1 ranking with a 62-71 victory.

Powers briefly held the lead at state with about a mile to go. After that, CdM senior Laura Bilder finished 18th in 18:38, followed by senior Kim Condino (19:07), freshman Kristin Rivera (19:11) and junior Marissa Cummings (19:13) in places 32, 33 and 35. Lutheran’s fourth runner came in 34th, but its fifth didn’t clock in until 22 spots later.

That the Sea Kings were even in position to take Lutheran’s throne was quite an accomplishment. At the beginning of the year, realizing his team didn’t have the natural talent of his 2005 and 2006 championship squads that won in some of the fastest times in state history, Sumner asked the girls to research the overall top 10 teams in the state.

Corona del Mar wasn’t on any of the lists, but Lutheran and Foothill, which finished fifth in Division III, were on most of them.

“We came a long way,” Sumner said. “Some people had us in the 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 spots. Some people even put us at 14. ... We took our lumps early, then we just kind of started working. Then they started believing, and they’ve been running like crazy.”

In the Division II girls’ race, defending champion Newport Harbor faced a tougher field that included last year’s Division I champ, Saugus, and scuffled to eighth place.

The Sailors were led by Erica Pearson’s 18:33 (25th place) and Desiree Alexander’s 18:40 (32nd) and totaled 216 points. Saugus dominated with a 1-3-6-10-12 finish.

“Division II was a lot tougher this year,” Newport Harbor Coach Eric Tweit said. “We were hoping to get in the top five, so from that standpoint we’re a little disappointed. But for the most part we did a good job.”

Sage Hill School finished 14th behind Cait Williamson’s 20:33 (32nd) in the Division V girls’ race, which was won by Mission Prep of San Luis Obispo’s Jordan Hasay for the fourth straight year.

Junior Lion Wintemute finished 26th in 16:44 for the Lightning in the boys’ race.