Cross country: Sea Kings flex muscles in prelims

Tony Altobelli

WALNUT - The Corona del Mar High girls cross country team took on

not only a tough field at Saturday’s CIF Southern Section Division IV

preliminaries, but also an unforgiving three-mile course at Mt. San

Antonio College and walked away all smiles.

The gleeful pack of Sea Kings took care of business, compiling the

lowest point total of all the three heats with 34.

“This group has worked hard all year long and this is why,” Sea Kings

Coach Bill Sumner said. “We just wanted to qualify today. Sometimes when

you pin those numbers on the kids’ uniforms, they can get a little crazy

out on the course, so we tried to find a happy medium out there, which we

did. The times were right where I wanted them to be.”

The game plan is simple for CdM: The pack stays together while Season

Meservey runs like a child possessed.

With her now-famous pained-like expression on her face, Meservey

started out fast and stayed ahead of the pack, winning her heat with a

time of 19:00, fifth-fastest time out of all three heats.

“She just goes based on how she’s feeling,” Sumner said. “She may not

look all that comfortable out there, but she knows what she’s capable of

doing.”

The Sea Kings had four runners in the top-10 and all seven in the

top-21.

Senior Katie Quinlan was third in the heat with a 19:31.8, Diana

Hossfeld took seventh with a 19:51.4 and Lindsay Yourman was 10th with a

19:58.9. Jenny Cummins rounded out CdM’s five scorers with a 20:13.9,

good enough for 13th.

The Estancia girls team also advanced to Saturday’s finals by the

narrowest of margins.

Four schools from each head advanced, along with the fifth-fastest out

of all the heats. Estancia was that fifth school to move on.

The Eagles’ total team time of 1 hour, 45:47 (110 points) edged out

Fillmore’s time by just over six seconds.

“It doesn’t get much closer than that,” Eagles Coach Charlie Appell

said. “We’ve been running on our course all season long and that can get

mundane. It was nice to come out to another course to run.

Senior Liz Huipe put together a personal-best time of 18:59.7 to take

third place in her heat.

“I think it’s important to really concentrate on a course like this,”

Huipe said. “There’s a lot of obstacles that can slow you down if you’re

not ready for them. This is my second year on this course so I know what

to expect.”

A pleasant surprise for the Eagles came from sophomore Diana Rosette.

She pulled off a solid time of 20:02.7 to finish eighth and it was her

spot in the standings that made the difference.

Janet Cahvantzi (26th, 21:44) Stephanie Melendez (41st, 22:47) and

Chloe Malle (44th, 22:49) complete the Eagles’ top-five.

“I felt that we were on the bubble as far as qualifying goes,” Appell

said. “It was nice to see us make it to the finals.”