Short-Handed Corona del Mar Finishes Second

It was a valiant effort under normal circumstances for the Corona del Mar girls’ cross-country team.

But the Sea Kings’ second-place finish in the team sweepstakes race at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational Saturday was even more remarkable considering their best runner didn’t finish the three-mile race.

Senior Liz Morse had fallen back to last place on her team when Coach Bill Sumner removed her from the course at about the 2 1/2-mile mark.

“She’s sick,” Sumner said. “She had a bit of a sore throat and as soon as she started putting the pedal to the metal, she couldn’t get any air.”

Morse was Corona del Mar’s top finisher in victories at the Stanford Invitational and Orange County Championships this season. She would have needed a top-five finish Saturday for Corona del Mar to overtake Felton San Lorenzo Valley, which won by 22 points.

The Sea Kings did finish eight points ahead of third-place La Jolla, thanks to strong performances from the rest of the team.

Katie Quinlan finished seventh overall in 18 minutes 53.5 seconds. Jenny Cummins was 14th in 19:23.9, Diana Hossfeld 24th in 19:37.3, Season Meservey 26th in 19:43.5 and Katherine Morse 28th in 19:47.60.

“When they saw Liz fading back, they moved forward,” Sumner said. “Once they started moving forward, that actually hurt themselves a little bit. Now they didn’t panic, because they survived the whole deal, but you could just see our pack of four or five girls go early.”

Santa Margarita junior Lori Mann finished fifth overall in the team sweepstakes race with the top time of the day among Orange County runners (18:20.40). The Eagles finished fourth with 147 points, but were also short-handed with the absence of Sommer Owens, who was ill.

In the girls’ individual sweepstakes, Newport Harbor junior Amber Steen finished seventh in 18:46.70. Santa Rosa Montgomery’s Sarah Bei finished first in 17:05.30, the fourth-best high school mark ever on the course.

In the boys’ competition, Mission Viejo finished a surprising 12th in the team sweepstakes race, running a county-best team time of 1:21.49. The Diablos, who are not ranked in the Southern Section polls, finished ahead of 14th-place Santa Ana Valley, ranked fifth in Division I, and 15th-place Edison, ranked third in the county.

Edison’s Scott Brandos had the top time among county runners (15:29.20), finishing 10th in the team sweepstakes race.

Santa Margarita’s Steven Murray finished eighth in the individual sweepstakes race with the county’s second-best time (15:36.70). The Eagles finished seventh in the team standings and Santiago was fourth.

Another strong team result was turned in by Dana Hills, which finished second in a lower division race, equaling Santa Ana Valley’s second-best team time among county schools (1:22.06). El Toro won another lower division race with a team time of 1:22.17.