Damon pulls off shocker

WALNUT — The coach has a plan and the athletes follow it through.

If it were that easy, everyone would be winners and no one would be surprised.

Allison Damon and the Corona del Mar girls’ cross country team surprised even their coach with a win at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational Friday.

Damon ran a time of 18 minutes, 35 seconds giving her the individual win, edging Yucca Valley’s Katar Rakowiak, who posted an 18:53 and helping the Sea King’s win the Division III Team Sweepstakes for a third time in a row. CdM’s team time was 1 hour, 37 minutes, 24 seconds to beat out second-place Irvine’s three minutes, 17 seconds.

Also contributing to the team win was Shelby Buckley’s ninth place finish at 19:26, Melanie Powers who finished 15th at 19:49, Sarah Craig who placed 18th at 20:02, Kim Codino’s 31st place finish at 20:44 and Taylor Hebb who finished 40th at 21:01.

“We had a plan and we told them you don’t have to kill yourself, but you have to give it an honest effort because that’s really all you can do,” Coach Bill Sumner said.

Apparently, Damon thought that “honest effort” meant “go and win” because that is exactly what happened.

At one point Damon was trailing her teammate, Shelby Buckley, by 80 yards but was able to close the gap and catch her.

According to Sumner, not many girls can do that and that definitely surprised him.

“I was really impressed with Allison,” said Sumner. “She’s one of those kids who loves the hills and I told her to hold back a little, be patient and when you get to the hills then go. So at the top of the hills we let her go.”

From there, the rest is how the plan was drawn out.

The coaches coached, the athletes executed and the outcome was what everyone’s game plan is geared toward: winning.

But even with the win, the Sea Kings’ coach was still able fester up something that bothered him.

He said that it was good day because six of his seven girls ran well, with Buckley, who recorded a ninth place finish, being the exception.

She’s expected to be up at the top every time and he is excited for what could happen if everyone runs to their abilities.

“If we can get all seven running well in one day, we are going to look like a championship team,” said Sumner.

— From staff reports