High Schools:

On any given day, runners from the Corona del Mar High girls’ cross country A, B and C teams can outrun the varsity competition.

The Sea Kings are that deep.

CdM returned from its remarkable Friday at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational, where the Sea Kings won the Division III varsity sweepstakes race and the Division III-V national junior varsity race in Walnut, still aching for better times.

The Sea Kings have overcome the obstacles, the flu bug, losing two seniors off last year’s CIF State Division III championship team to graduation, and are primed to make another run. The key for CdM is getting everyone healthy as the Pacific Coast League finals are Nov. 5, followed by the CIF Southern Section Division III preliminaries on Nov. 14, the section finals on Nov. 21, and state finals on Nov. 28.

“If we can be at 100% the next three weeks, we can take another shot at those titles,” said CdM Coach Bill Sumner, referring to league, section and state. “If we don’t, it’s going to be a hard road to climb.”

The usual runners continued to finish in the top five for CdM’s varsity team, which is ranked No. 2 in CIF Southern Section Division III.

Melanie Powers finished in 18 minutes, 1 second, taking first place on the tough course. Marisa Cummings was 13th (19:18), followed by Ashlee Powers (15th, 19:31), Kristina Funahashi (18th, 19:38) and Shelby Perez (26th, 20:06).

Two lower-level runners stood out to Sumner and they ran in separate races.

Sarah Keddington claimed the JV national title. Keddington’s time was 20:17, easily qualifying for the sixth-fastest mark if she had run with the varsity team.

The other performer was Kylie Walker, who competed in the sophomore event. Walker’s 20:55 mark turned out to be the seventh-fastest time of the day for all of CdM’s runners.

“Depth is always a good thing to have,” Sumner said. “The girls are always competing, trying to get better. You never know, we might need one of the lower-level runners for varsity.”

 Coming off an undefeated Sunset League championship run, Newport Harbor went into the season with practically a new girls’ tennis team.

Gone were the top two singles players, the No. 1 doubles team, and one of the players from the No. 2 doubles team.

The Sailors haven’t missed a beat.

Newport Harbor is 7-0 in league, ranked No. 10 in CIF Southern Section Division II, and three youngsters are big reasons why.

In their first year starting, sophomores Ricki Archie and Christina Young are 19-0 in league as the No. 1 doubles team. Freshman Samantha Stalder has performed well in league. She has a 13-4 record as the No. 1 singles player.

“I knew over the summer that they looked good together,” Newport Harbor Coach Kristen Case said of Archie and Young. “I didn’t expect them to do this well.

“As for Samantha, coming in as a freshman, I thought the pressure might be a lot for her to deal with at No. 1, but she loves it.”

Things will sure intensify today, when Newport Harbor plays host to Esperanza in a vital league match at 3 p.m.

The Aztecs are in second place in league at 6-1, trailing the Sailors. Newport won at Esperanza, 11-7, on Oct. 8.

“We have three more league matches left and the first two are huge,” said Case, who after facing Esperanza guides the Sailors to Los Alamitos, which is 5-2 in league. “Our success is due to the fact that we play every match like we’re playing the No. 1 team.”

 The Newport Harbor girls’ volleyball team tries to remain perfect in Sunset League play tonight at 5:45.

The top-ranked Sailors (19-3, 6-0 in league) travel to No. 5 Los Alamitos (22-7, 5-1) for a showdown between two teams in the CIF Southern Section Division I-AA poll.

The rivals last competed against each other on Oct. 13, when the Sailors won, 25-17, 25-15, 23-25, 25-23, behind Kirby Burnham’s 15 kills and a combined 24 kills from Katey Thompson and Maddy Brown.

Last year, the Griffins won the league title outright. Newport Harbor is trying to win it this year by finishing undefeated.