Girls cross country: CdM conquers state, again

Tony Altobelli

According to Corona del Mar High girls cross country coach Bill

Sumner, his team was, “Pulling from the front and pushing from the rear.”

That complete style of team cohesiveness propelled the Sea Kings to

not only the top of the CIF Division IV mountain on Saturday at Fresno’s

Woodward Park, they got their own zip code and fire department.

With race-time temperatures in the low ‘40s, the Sea Kings burned up

the course with a team total of 75. Maranatha was a distant second at

150, while Bishop O’Dowd took third with 163.

“The conditions were nearly perfect for our runners,” Sumner said.

“Our girls had some serious focus going on among them”

The Sea Kings, last year’s Division IV state champs, came into this

race as heavy favorites, but Sumner wasn’t concerned with who was favored

where.

“We looked at this race not as a guarantee, but as an opportunity,”

Sumner said. “If we had run our brains out and had blown up, anyone would

have been able to beat us. Instead, we gave a nice solid team effort and

it paid off for us.”

All seven Sea Kings’ runners were within a minute of each other, while

the top five runners placed in the top 26 in team points.

“This was our Super Bowl today,” Sumner said. “This whole year was in

preparation for this race and we won our Super Bowl.”

Leading the Sea Kings’ pack was senior Katie Quinlan, who clocked a

19:22 for sixth place among the team runners. Junior Season Meservey was

11th at 19:39, while seniors Diana Hossfeld (13th, 19:40), Jenny Cummins

(19th, 19:52) and Lindsey Yourman (26th, 20:01) complete CdM’s top five.

“I was real pleased with how our seniors stepped up and ran like

champs out there in their final race,” Sumner said. “All of our girls

were together at the quarter-mile mark and finally started to separate in

the last half-mile.”

Sophomores Jennifer Long (31st, 20:06) and Katherine Morse (32nd,

20:07) helped keep the lead runners on their toes, both with a loud voice

as well as a quick pace.

“At the mile mark, Katherine was telling the lead runners, ‘Let’s go,

time to pick it up,’ then near the end, she was telling them to make

their move,” Sumner said. “It was really great to see everyone perform so

well at just the right time. All seven runners within a minute of each

other. Unbelievable.”

All the Sea Kings had a speedy pink object to chase in the person of

Estancia senior Liz Huipe.

After placing ninth in last year’s state finals, Huipe placed sixth

overall with a time of 19:07, matching her time from a year ago.