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WALNUT — Three points.
That’s all that separated the Corona del Mar High girls’ cross country team from winning its sixth straight CIF Southern Section Division III championship.
CdM Coach Bill Sumner noticed the difference for sure Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College. His Sea Kings finished second, scoring 49 points, while champion Orange Lutheran had 52. It could’ve very easily been the other way around in CdM’s favor, Sumner said.
“The 14th finisher was an Orange Lutheran girl, the 15th finisher was an Orange Lutheran girl and the 16th girl was Corona del Mar’s Ashlee Powers,” he said. “All three of them had identical times [of 18 minutes, 30 seconds]. If they changed the sequence of that, we win.”
Sumner added a month ago, no one thought CdM even had a chance to beat Orange Lutheran. In this meet, the Sea Kings recorded the best team time, 1 hour, 30 minutes, 42 seconds, among Orange County schools.
“[Orange Lutheran] had to do everything they could to beat us by one second,” said Sumner, whose team was paced by senior Melanie Powers, the third-place finisher (17:30). “We were toe-to-toe with them. It could’ve gone either way with the race you saw.”
Nevertheless, Sumner said CdM seniors Marisa Cummings, who finished in fifth place with a 17:54 mark, and Sarah Keddington, who was 47th in 19:23, did not take the close-shave margin from the title lightly.
“We had two kids where you can see the pain in their eyes,” he said. “If we can get those kids to remember that pain and bring it to the meet next Saturday [at the CIF State meet in Fresno], I think we still have a chance to beat Orange Lutheran.”
Just like Sumner, Melanie Powers also said encouraging words to her teammates.
“We’re still in the fight,” she said. “We’re a great team and all of us are great runners. We’re Corona del Mar High School. We’re a tough girls’ team.”
It was a special day for Melanie Powers because this will be the last CIF section championship race she runs with her sister, Ashlee, at CdM.
“She’s going to be gone, which is really weird,” Ashlee Powers said. “We’ve been running forever together.”
Though the Sea Kings did not defend its CIF championship, CdM still has an opportunity to defend its state crown Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno.
