By Rich Gonzalez
DyeStat/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 Division III Girls 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.
Kirby Lee's "Bird's-Eye" View
of the Start Area
More
Kirby Lee Pictures
While Corona del Mar dominated
the action in Division III girls, the victory margin in Division
IV Sweepstakes was nearly as impressive. Page High of
Arizona, which reportedly made the 10-hour drive to attend the meet,
will no doubt enjoy the return trip after nailing a big 40-point win
over Marlborough, 27-67. Page, which also boasted the individual race
winner in Katrina Lee (18:43) won by more than 4 1/2 minutes.
The Division
V Girls Sweepstakes race featured the first showdown
of the season between the state's top two small-schools lineups. Second-ranked
Mt. Shasta of northern-most California won a thriller over top-ranked
Woodcrest Christian, 43-50, as 6 of the top 8 finishes came from the
two schools. Four of those belonged to Mt. Shasta, however, including
race-winner and former state Division V champion Katie Fritzke (19:00).
It is notable that Mt. Shasta continues to excel without a top
all-state runner from a year ago, who has reportedly been nursing an
injury.
The Division
III Boys Sweepstakes was another example of South Bay
rising power Palos Verdes putting the hurt on top teams. Palos Verdes
swooped in to win the big Stanford Invitational three weeks ago, then
eked out a thrilling 2-point win over Laguna Hills, 99-101, here this
time out. Palos Verdes senior Fawad Khan won in 15:41 Top-ranked Santa
Margarita sat out its top runner and had its coach pull out another
key runner early in the race after the effects of recent sickness were
still apparent. Barstow, also a highly regarded program, opted to run
three varsity runners in the lower levels. Had Santa Margarita and Barstow
been at full strength, it appears neither would have topped PV on this
day.
The Division
IV Boys Sweepstakes saw another out-of-state program
snag top honors, with Hopi topping Central Section juggernaut McFarland,
40-67. Hopi, which makes appearances at Mt. SAC quite often and usually
shows very well, had all five scorers in the top 15, gapped by 51 seconds.
Parlier senior Erick Garcia won the race in 15:24, 10 seconds over Stanford
Invitational divisional champion Matt Duffy of Berkeley St. Mary's.
Defending state individual champion German Fernandez of Riverbank competed
in Race #25, a non-seeded Division IV varsity boys race. He won easily
in 16:27, 15 seconds ahead of his nearest pursuer. It was Fernandez's
first race of the season after a lengthy sit-out period following a
winter-time injury.
The Division
V Boys Sweepstakes showcased a Woodcrest Christian team
that has big goals to break 80 minutes on the Mt. SAC course this fall,
but today was surely not the day. With one runner absent and another
struggling a tad, the crew still managed a convincing 44-71 triumph
over rival Flintridge Prep, clocking 82:55 in the process. Valley Christian's
Robbie Knorr added to his previous Stanford win with a fine 15:27 triumphant
effort here, six seconds ahead of runner-up Kody Peterson.
The Mt. SAC Invitational concludes
Saturday with more than 60 races on the schedule, incuding the featured
Large Schools Sweepstakes races in the morning, before temperatures
are expected to rise into the mid-80s. The mid-morning forecast is for
readings in the low to mid-70s. ##
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