HIGH SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY

BOYS’ AND GIRLS’

CIF Southern Section

preliminaries

WALNUT — The Corona del Mar High boys and girls advanced to next week’s finals, where the Sea Kings’ girls will assuredly be favored to win Division III after their performance at Mt. San Antonio College Saturday.

The CdM girls earned the top team time, 91 minutes, eight seconds, and qualified first with five runners in the top nine. Sarah Cummings (17:37), Shelby Buckley (18:03) and Allison Damon (18:04) led with a 1-2-3 finish for the Sea Kings, who also received contributions from Allison Gushue (fifth in 18:43), Hilary May (ninth in 18:51), Christie St. Geme (12th in 19:07) and Nichole Slykhous (22nd in 19:54).

“It was a pretty good day,” CdM Coach Bill Sumner said.

The CdM boys qualified second in Division III. Tim Scott led the Sea Kings, qualifying seventh at 16:01. Thomas Dialynas (11th in 16:09), Tommy Hutchison (16th in 16:15), Brian Licorice (29th in 16:47), Tri Nguyen (30th in 16:49, Brett Granger (35th in 16:56 and Curtis Converse (69th in 17:39) followed.

Newport Harbor

WALNUT — The Sailors girls won their heat and advanced in Division II.

Melissa Meade (18:17) and Taylor Bryson (18:27) finished fifth and sixth, respectively, while Sophia Ditty (10th in 18:59), Desiree Alexander (11th in 19:00), Jennifer Cain (18th in 19:27), DeYoung (27th in 19:41) and Terra Friedman (48th in 20:35) followed.

The Newport boys had an off day and narrowly missed qualifying for finals in Division II, finishing fifth in their heat. The top four teams all qualified.

Individually, Newport Harbor junior Mike Puncel finished 19th in 16:19, Jake Dawson was 26th in 16:33 and Murphy Hitchcock took 29th in 16:36. Also running for the Sailors were Alex Crawford (42nd, 16:58), Rex Nelson (45th, 17:01), Scott Figueroa (66th, 17:20) and Carlo Urquidez (71st, 17:29).

Coach Nowell Kay said Nelson tripped and was ran over by a few runners in the first half mile. It was too much to overcome, Kay added.

Estancia

WALNUT — The Eagles boys and girls both qualified for the Division III finals in fifth place.

Sophomore Fernando Orozco finished 17th for the boys in 16:31, and teammate Wes Barloon was 27th in 15:42. Also running were Adriel Robles (29th, 16:43), Cesar Cesillas (46th, 17:03), Andy Navarrette (54th, 17:12), Damian Leon (64th, 17:21) and Enrique Vivar (81st, 17:53).

For the girls, senior Sydney Barloon was eighth in 18:57, and teammate Paula Negrete finished 23rd in 19:50.

Other finishers included Alexa Aguilar (27th, 20:01), Sindey Ramirez (45th, 20:21), Eunice Rodriguez (60th, 20:44), Magali Onofre (61st, 20:45) and Karina Rios (70th, 21:32).

Sage Hill

WALNUT — The Lightning girls qualified fourth in Division IV, while the boys qualified in 12th. Sage Hill junior Connor Rose finished in 16:32, the fastest overall Division IV boys’ time of the day.

Running for the girls’ team were Cait Williamson (19:47), Aiyana Bobrownicki (20:09), Katie McKeon (20:36), Jackie Dion (21:42), Erica Faris (21:57), Courtney Conlogue (22:02) and MacKenzie Muhonen (22:04).

Also running for the Sage Hill boys were Sean McElroy (16:45), Conrad Whitaker (18:34), Chris Lee (19:29), Alex Jimenez (19:34), Kyle Simon (20:02) and Michael Beitman (20:24).

They return to Mt. SAC on Saturday.

Costa Mesa

WALNUT — Emily Cotton finished her season in 20:10 for 29th in girls Division III.