Corona del Mar routs field, running within a second of last year's great team

US#2 CA#1 Corona del Mar girls steamrollered the Division 3 Sweepstakes with 31 points. Senior Sarah Cummings 17:37 (right, photo by John Dye ) led CDM to a 1-5-6-7-12 finish, with their 6th and 7th runners coming in 14 and 15.

Annie St. Geme is gone, but CDM rolls on

by Rich Gonzalez
DyeStat and DyeStatCal

WALNUT -- Losing Annie St. Geme to graduation has really weakened Corona del Mar High's girls cross-country team this fall.
Riding Annie's amazing front-running talents last year, the Sea Kings stormed to a 4-minute, 57-second victory over their nearest competitor.
This year they only won by 4:48.
Yes indeed, life is tough for Corona del Mar coach Bill Sumner.
"I'll tell you what, we may not have Annie, but I like what we do have," quipped Sumner minutes after watching his girls dominate opening-day action of the 59th annual Mt. SAC Invitational.
"We have plenty of girls up front that can run fast and plenty of girls behind them that can outrun the top girls on most teams."
He's not kidding.
CdM had Sarah Cummings and Shelby Buckley run an aggressive first mile as part of a strong lead pack in the girls Division III Sweepstakes race, with the rest of the Sea Kings following closely behind. While other runners began wilting amid the final remnants of the mid-afternoon heat, Corona del Mar forged ahead.
Three challening hills later, CdM had stuffed the finish chute with all 7 runners among the first 15 finishers. The net result was a convincing 31-91 victory over Northern California visitor Del Oro as the nation's #2-ranked team remained unbeaten in 2006.
Despite what Sumner termed as a heavy training week and a de-emphasis on this meet, the Sea Kings had senior Sarah Cummings power away from her rivals on the hills to turn a tight six-person race into an eventual 52-second personal victory in 17:37. Corona del Mar had three other scorers within a 20-second cushion near the 19-minute range, and a final scorer at 19:41 while running shorthanded.
"This was just a practice," Sumner reminded. "The big meets starts next month."
Maybe so, but the biggest meet on the planet (in terms of size) got underway on Friday.
With an estimated 19,000 runenrs registered (and approximately 15,200 expected to actually compete), Day One of the two-day extravaganza featured mid- and small-sized enrollment classification schools taking to the legendary 2.91-mile course, including three featured divisional "sweepstakes" races in each gender.

Fulfilling a different kind of PR
Wwhile Corona del Mar athletes chase Personal Records, coach Bill Sumner captures the essence of Personal Responsibility. Rich Gonzalez chronicles Bill Sumner's race day.