Sea Kings denied

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WALNUT — Three points.

That’s all that separated the Corona del Mar High girls’ cross country team from winning its sixth straight CIF Southern Section Division III championship.

CdM Coach Bill Sumner noticed the difference for sure Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College. His Sea Kings finished second, scoring 49 points, while champion Orange Lutheran had 52. It could’ve very easily been the other way around in CdM’s favor, Sumner said.

“The 14th finisher was an Orange Lutheran girl, the 15th finisher was an Orange Lutheran girl and the 16th girl was Corona del Mar’s Ashlee Powers,” he said. “All three of them had identical times [of 18 minutes, 30 seconds]. If they changed the sequence of that, we win.”

Sumner added a month ago, no one thought CdM even had a chance to beat Orange Lutheran. In this meet, the Sea Kings recorded the best team time, 1 hour, 30 minutes, 42 seconds, among Orange County schools.

“[Orange Lutheran] had to do everything they could to beat us by one second,” said Sumner, whose team was paced by senior Melanie Powers, the third-place finisher (17:30). “We were toe-to-toe with them. It could’ve gone either way with the race you saw.”

Nevertheless, Sumner said CdM seniors Marisa Cummings, who finished in fifth place with a 17:54 mark, and Sarah Keddington, who was 47th in 19:23, did not take the close-shave margin from the title lightly.

“We had two kids where you can see the pain in their eyes,” he said. “If we can get those kids to remember that pain and bring it to the meet next Saturday [at the CIF State meet in Fresno], I think we still have a chance to beat Orange Lutheran.”

Just like Sumner, Melanie Powers also said encouraging words to her teammates.

“We’re still in the fight,” she said. “We’re a great team and all of us are great runners. We’re Corona del Mar High School. We’re a tough girls’ team.”

It was a special day for Melanie Powers because this will be the last CIF section championship race she runs with her sister, Ashlee, at CdM.

“She’s going to be gone, which is really weird,” Ashlee Powers said. “We’ve been running forever together.”

Though the Sea Kings did not defend its CIF championship, CdM still has an opportunity to defend its state crown Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Sage Hill School freshman Dylan Thies also advanced to the CIF State meet after finishing 10th in Division V with a personal-best 16:13. He was fourth among individuals who were on a team that did not advance to the state championships.

“We’ve been [to state] 22 times in a row,” Sumner said. “We’re not a team that looks to go to state with the girls. We want to be a factor.”

The CdM boys’ cross country team also competed in the CIF championships at Mt SAC, but was not one of the seven teams that moved on to Fresno.

“We had a very strong four-man showing,” Sumner said of the boys’ team. “Derek Satterfield, who was No. 7 for us today, is usually fourth or fifth. He has been sick and been battling food poisoning from last week.”

The top three CdM finishers were junior Peter Morris (36th, 16:02), junior Austin Barvin (38th, 16:03) and sophomore Blake Myers (39th, 16:03).

“All in all it was a good day,” Sumner said. “The boys got to the CIF [section] finals. They got eight in CIF; you can’t complain about that ... The girls got second. They weren’t expected to do that. I think we made a few people nervous today.”

Melanie Powers added she’s also looking forward to her last meet as a Sea King Saturday.

“It’ll be fun to run a last, team cross country race in because I love cross country,” Melanie Powers said. “We’re going to give it all we got.”

In the girls’ Division III race, Palos Verdes sophomore Rebecca Mehra finished first (17:12) and Oak Park junior Melissa Skiba was second (17:16).

As a team Palos Verdes finished third with 109 points, 57 behind CdM.

In the boys’ Division III race, South Pasadena junior Samuel Pons won in 14:57, Palos Verdes had sophomore Jonah Diaz (14:58) and senior Chase Zukerman (15:00) finish second and third, respectively.

The Palos Verdes boys won the Division III title with 52 points, St. John Bosco of Bellflower was second with 62 and Golden Valley of Santa Clarita was third with 124.

Thies led the Sage Hill boys to a 13th-place finish in CIF Division V. Woodcrest Christian of Riverside won the race.

Lightning Coach Nate Miller had reserved a hotel in Fresno before the season, just in case. Now, the reservation is a definite because of Thies.

“He’s one of those kids who rises to the level of his competition,” Miller said of Thies, who finished fourth in the Academy League. “He did a great job of taking advantage of the moment. He got really fired up in his first CIF meet.”

Junior Slater Stanley (59th in 17:40), senior David Penner (62nd in 17:46), junior Alomar Brito (79th in 18:19) and senior Dylan Houle (101st in 19:53) also competed for Sage Hill.

The Sage Hill girls finished ninth in CIF Division V. Chadwick of Palos Verdes Peninsula won the race.

Freshman Sophia Witte led the Lightning, finishing 44th in 21:48, while sophomore Caroline Grant (47th in 21:51), senior Jackie Dion (53rd in 22:11), freshman Campbell Moore (56th in 22:22) and sophomore Naomi Grenados (71st in 22:54) also competed for Sage Hill.

Estancia senior Jorge Martin finished 22nd in 15:50 in CIF Division III.

Costa Mesa senior James Stucker finished 30th in 16:44 in CIF Division IV.

— Steve Virgen contributed to this story