All area teams advance to Southern Section finals

x-country prelims story for SundayCorona del Mar girls take top five spots in heat and record second-best time ever on Mount San Antonio course Saturday.WALNUT -- All seven Newport-Mesa high school cross country teams and Kenny Rakestraw, competing individually, qualified for CIF Southern Section finals with their performances in the CIF preliminaries Saturday at Mount San Antonio College.

On a day with several standout performances, no one was better than the Corona del Mar High girls' team. The Sea Kings boasted the first five finishers in their CIF Division III heat, recording a team time of 1:31:53 -- the second best mark for any girls' team on the Mount SAC course and the best girls' team time of the day.

"The girls had a very good workout, they had a job to do," Corona del Mar Coach Bill Sumner said. "Did I think they'd finish one through five? No. That's not what I intended. We wanted to go hard the first two miles then cruise to the finish. To get the second-fastest team time on this course with that plan is a good sign."

Annie St. Geme led the way with a first-place time of 16:58. Sarah Cummings was second in 17:54 and Allison Damon finished third with time of 18:56. Shelby Buckley followed at 19:01 and Nicole Slykhous took fifth in 19:04 for the Sea Kings, who finished with a perfect 15 points.

"My two-mile time was 11:12," St. Geme said. "I felt fatigued at that point and I coasted in with what I had left. Next week we probably won't be running the same way. I'm not sure what the plan will be next week."

The second-place team in Corona del Mar's heat, Santa Margarita (82 points), was almost 10 minutes behind (1:41:26).

The Newport Harbor girls also had a dominating performance, taking first place in their heat with a time of 1:35:05 -- the fourth-best girls' team time of the day. Whitney Blue led the way with a first-place time of 17:43. Melissa Mead was fifth in 19:03, Erica Pearson finished seventh (19:25), Lauren Maddox and Taylor Bryson tied for ninth (19:27) for the Sailors (32 points), who advance to the CIF finals Saturday at Mount SAC.

The Estancia High girls finished fifth in their Division III heat, but had the best time (1:44:27) of the fifth-place teams in the three heats to earn the at-large spot for the CIF finals on Saturday.

Sydney Barloon led the way with a third-place time of 19:23. Paula Negrete was 13th in 20:28, Magali Onofre finished 17th in 20:59, Karina Rios was 30th in 21:34 and Sindi Ramirez finished 34th in 22:03.