In ‘loss’ Cummings yields triumph

CORONA DEL MAR — Bill Sumner’s tricks might be old, but they still work.

The Corona del Mar High track coach somehow convinced sophomore Marisa Cummings and her teammates that they were losing to Newport Harbor before the start of the 3,200-meter event Wednesday.

Mind you, the 3,200 was the penultimate race of the meet, which the girls won, 72-55. First-place finishes in each event are worth five points.

Even with fuzzy math, that just doesn’t add up.

If the girls weren’t on to sneaky devil Sumner before, they are now.

“Going into the race, we all thought that we were down by a few points, we had to get up there and couldn’t let them win,” said Cummings, whose sister Sarah, won the CIF Southern Section Division III championship in the same event last year and now races for Princeton. “I just decided that it was going to be me and I had to take the race.”

Cummings was in third place behind Sophia Ditty of Newport Harbor, but overtook her to win with a time of 11 minutes, 42.5 seconds.

“It definitely got a fire burning under our butts,” Cummings said. “We were motivated, that’s for sure. I’m not sure where that came from.”

About a month ago, Sumner met with everyone on the team to talk about their strengths, weaknesses, and goals. He wanted Cummings to start owning her weaknesses and turn them into strengths.

“She was in third place, and I started yelling at her about our meeting,” Sumner said. “She remembered our meeting and went from third to first. Maybe I need to have more meetings with these kids.”

In addition to Cummings, junior Claire Schmidt and senior Shelby Buckley also found success Wednesday. Schmidt won the 200 and 400 meter events, and anchored the winning 400 relay team. She was the first runner on the 1,600 relay team, which also won. Buckley took first on the 800 and 1,600 meter events, and anchored the 4x400 relay team.

Schmidt is one of three juniors on the varsity squad, and has stepped into the leadership role with only two seniors on this year’s team. Allison Damon, the other Sea Kings senior, missed the meet due to illness, which was possibly strep throat, mononucleosis, or pneumonia, Buckley said.

Sumner said he saw improvement from Schmidt, who ran cross country for the first time this past season.

“She did four events, which none of them add up to three miles,” Sumner said. “Cross country is paying off for her pretty big. Four events to her now is no big deal.”

Throwers carry Newport

After the Irvine Invitational over the weekend, Newport Harbor senior Mat Bissonnette picked himself back up.

The senior hurdler won both the 110 and the 300 hurdles Wednesday, and his confidence came back, too.

Bissonnette crashed and tumbled on the fifth hurdle Saturday in Irvine, and his physical bruises were still evident at Corona del Mar.

But he won, taking the 110 hurdles in 16.1 seconds, and the 300 hurdles in 42.1 seconds.

“It’s always a little bit of a psychological barrier with the hurdles,” said Newport boys’ track and field coach Nowell Kay. “You can fall any day. As a former hurdler myself, I told him it’s kind of inevitable, so he got his out of the way. He’ll be good for the rest of the season.”

In addition to Bissonnette’s performance, the Sailors swept the shot put and discus events on the boys’ side to win, 73-54, over Corona del Mar. They were also helped by junior Jake Dawson’s first-place finish in the 3,200.

Brandon Kula took first place in the shot put with a throw of 50 feet, 10 inches, while Nate Talbott won the boys’ discus with a throw of 162-5. Tony Ciarelli, the defensive coordinator for the football team, is the boys’ shot and discus coach.

Kay is hoping the Sailors’ strengths at distance running and throwing events will lead to wins this season, but that might be a little tougher against Esperanza.

The Sailors open the Sunset League with a meet at Esperanza Thursday, a school with similar strengths.

“They’re really good also in the throws,” Kay said. “That’s going to mitigate our advantage compared to most teams. They’re one of the best throwing schools around.”

Dawson, the No. 3 runner on the cross country team, took third at the Irvine Invitational Saturday. He’ll be running his first 5K on a track Saturday at the Camarillo Distance Invitational, where he’s hoping to qualify for the Arcadia Invitational.

Because of the strong field of distance runners in Southern California, there will be a 5K event at Arcadia for the first time this year.

While the Sailors are deep with distance runners, senior Bucko Theriot is the team’s standout sprinter. Theriot won his first competitive 100 meter event. He finished in 11.4 seconds.

“Sprints is going to be tough for us,” Kay said. “It’s good to have Bucko because he’s our best sprinter, but it’s going to be tough against some of the other schools in our league.”

Nonleague

BOYS

Newport Harbor 73,

Corona del Mar 54

100 – 1. Theriot (NH), 11.4; 2. Townsend (CdM), 11.6; 3. Yokoyama (NH), 11.7.

200 – 1. Townsend (CdM), 23.9; 2. Leyton (CdM), 24.1; 3. Verey (CdM), 24.2.

400 – 1. Peterson (NH), 53.4; 2. Leyton (CdM), 54.1; 3. Ward (NH), 54.8.

800 – 1. Hitchcock (NH), 2:01.5; 2. Puncel (NH), 2:01.8; 3. Demarco (CdM), 2:03.2.

1,600 – 1. Dialynas (CdM), 4:30.0; 2. Puncel (NH), 4:30.3; 3. Dawson (NH), 4:36.7.

3,200 – 1. Dawson (NH), 9:45.9; 2. Dialynas (CdM), 9:57.7; 3. Taylor (NH), 10:01.2.

110 HH – 1. Bissonnette (NH), 16.1; 2. Swigert (CdM), 17.7; 3. Hicks (CdM), 18.8.

300 IH – 1. Bissonnette (NH), 42.1; Swigert (CdM), 45.3; Santos (NH), 46.5.

400 relay – 1. Corona del Mar (Townsend, Bolus, Leyton, McKeen ), 45.6; 2. Newport Harbor, 45.6.

1,600 relay – 1. Newport Harbor (Theriot, Ward, Hitchcock, Batante), 3:35.6; 2. Corona del Mar, 3:38.1.

HJ – 1. Bolus (CdM), 5-6; 2. Coppoloa (CdM), 5-6; 3. Yokoyama (NH), 5-4.

TJ – 1. Bolus (CdM), 20-8.75; 2. Betonte (NH) 38-10; 3. Kehoe (NH), 37-5.5.

SP – 1. Kula (NH), 50-10; 2. Whiteside (NH), 48-5.75; 3. Talbott (NH), 41-3.5.

DT – 1. Talbott (NH), 162-5; 2. Whiteside (NH), 152-3; 3. Kula (NH), 139-10.

Nonleague

GIRLS

Corona del Mar 72,

Newport Harbor 55

100 – 1. Handcock (NH), 13.2; 2. Nelson (NH), 13.4; 3. Margolis (CdM), 13.5.

200 – 1. Schmidt (CdM), 27.3; 2. Berry (NH), 28.0; 3. Margolis (CdM), 28.1.

400 – 1. Schmidt (CdM), 1:01.2; 2. Craig (CdM), 1:02.5; 3. Berry (NH) 1:04.3.

800 – 1. Buckley (CdM), 2:21.0; 2. Pearson (NH), 2:21.7; 3. Condino (CdM) 2:22.4.

1,600 – 1. Buckley (CdM), 5:16.1; 2. Condino (CdM), 5:24.9; 3. Powers (CdM), 5.25.5.

3,200 – 1. Cummings (CdM), 11:42.5; 2. Ditty (NH) 11:44.9; 3. Bilder (CdM) 11:47.3.

100 HH – 1. Burnham (NH), 16.8; 2. Pozin (CdM), 18.4; 3. Carrier (CdM), 19.8.

300 IH – 1. Gayner (NH), 48.6; 2. Burnham (NH), 50.7; 3. Cooley (NH) 52.0.

400 relay – 1. Corona del Mar (Margolis, Marolt, Theriot, Schmidt), 53.10; 2. Newport Harbor, 51.7.

1,600 relay – 2. Corona del Mar (Schmidt, Theriot, Craig, Buckley), 4:08.7; 2. Newport Harbor 4:16.8.

HJ – 1. Buckingham (NH), 4-10; 2. Handcock (NH), 4-10; Ruiz (NH), 4-8.

LJ – 1. Marholt (CdM), 15-8.5; 2. Burnham (NH), 15-3.75; 3. Fitzsimons (NH), 14-9.5.

TJ – 1. Burnham (NH), 32-7; 2. Fitzsimons (NH), 31-10.5; 3. Layton (NH), 31-8.5.

SP – 1. Stern (CdM), 30-3.5; 2. Winkle (CdM), 29-8.5; 3. Buckingham (NH), 26-4.75.

DT – 1. Winkle (CdM), 98-8; 2. Stern (CdM), 82; 3. Greenberg, 80-14 (CdM).

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at [email protected].