Most people assume that the only way of becoming a varsity athlete is by starting the sport at a very young age, but this was not true with sophomore Blake Myers. He has only been running for two years and made varsity his freshman year for cross country/track.

“I originally was a soccer player and because Sage didn’t have an off-season soccer team, I decided to try cross country and track,” said this star runner. This season at League Finals he ran 1:59 for the 800 and 4:26 for the 1600!

“Whatever you do, don’t look back,” says Myers when in need of motivation. Even though running is a one-man sport, he couldn’t have accomplished what he has today if not for his peers. “My motivation for me comes from my fellow teammates who push me to do better and Coach Sumner who is a great figure to follow and be lead by. My motivation also comes from the sport itself, in that to do well in running it is all about how hard you try; you determine how fast you go and how hard you push yourself to win, which motivates me to try as hard as possible and give 100% every race.”

“Blake is such a hard worker and a great teammate. He always supports and encourages us to do better,” said Myers’ teammate, sophomore Bryan Tallichet.

“In terms of an athlete, I agree with Yoda, that there is no try, only do or do not,” said Myers.

All in all, Myers’ determination and hard work these past couple of years have proved to others that it doesn’t matter how old or young you were when you start a sport, but it is the amount of effort you put into getting better that determines the outcome.

Sophomore Kristen Rivera

Last Saturday, the girls cross country team rallied together to win the CIF Division III State Meet and Woodward Park in Fresno. This win marks the girls cross country seventh state title, and repeat win after winning state the previous year.

The girls finished the 5000 meter course (3.2 miles) with 76 points, ahead of rival Orange Lutheran by five points.

“This has been our dream since freshman year,” said team captains Sarah Keddington and Marissa Cummings, on winning the state meet.

Running against twenty two other teams, the girls were hungry for a win after taking second behind Orange Lutheran at the CIF Finals by three points.

“Both races were really close, the difference between those points can be a margin of one to two runners. And the course was freezing!” said team captains Sarah Keddington and Marissa Cummings.

Senior and team captain Melanie Powers lead the team with a time of 17:56 taking 3^rd. Seniors Kristina Funahashi and Ali Hummelberg ran pivotal times. Kristina Funahashi ran an incredibly fast race and was also able to beat her own PR, personal record. Ali Hummelberg saved some big points for the team by passing multiple runners on the last stretch to the finish line.

Due to their spectacular win at Fresno, the girl cross country team has been invited to run in Portland Oregon, at the Nike Cross Nationals. The girls will be competing against 22 other teams (154 athletes) at the Portland Meadows, a repurposed horse track. The man made 5k course features three loops and obstacles. Since it is in Portland, a city notorious for its rain fall, there is a possibility of adverse weather. The girls, however, have already taken this into account.

“We are expecting the course to be completely muddy, but we’re not quite so sure about the hay bales and other obstacles…” said Seniors Marissa Cummings and Sarah Keddington.

Their race is at 11:35 AM on Saturday, and they will be running as the Newport Beach XC Club of California. Click here to watch live streaming footage .

For more information visit Dystat or Nike Cross Nationals
Photo credit to Margaret Gallagher at Dyestat

CIF State Meet Results
Melanie Powers 17:56 3rd place
Kristina Funahashi 18:18 7th place
Marisa Cummings 18:27 13th place
Kristen Rivera 18:45 28th place
Ali Hummelberg 18:54 34th place
Ashlee Powers 19:00 43rd place
Sarah Keddington 19:22 72nd place

Justin Tam, Senior, Football

Justin is a senior in high school, and has played football for all four years during his time here at CdM. Unfortunately, the football was unable to make the CIF playoffs after last years great run to the semifinals. Tam plans to play football in college, most likely in a division three school. During his years here, he played as a wide receiver, outside linebacker, and a defensive back.

Sebastien Welch, Senior, Cross Country

Sebastien has been running for four years. This year Sebastien and his team are back in CIF finals, with the meet to take plce on Saturday. His running career started Freshman year in high school. He plans to continue his running in college. When asked where he would go to college, he stated, “probably somewhere on the east coast.”

Michael Liao, Senior, Water Polo

Michael is currently helping his team to the CIF title, with Newport Harbor in the way of the final game. Michael has played water polo since he was 11, and plans to continue to play water polo in college, most likely on the east coast. Michael’s position in water polo is driver, and he plays on the ½ side.

On concrete, dirt, and asphalt, the CdM Cross Country team persevered to place first in five of the six races at the Pacific Coast League Finals in Irvine Regional Park.

The course is fast and quick and virtually flat. While an overall road race, the course runs scenically through the park and woodland areas nearby. The course is further quicker due to the fact that it starts on a downhill and features only one uphill, ending with a fast downhill to finish. Due to this fact the majority of the racers were at their best. Senior Julien Crockett said on the topic of the course, “I always enjoy running on this course because of the diverse terrain, even though it can be a bit hot. It was good to see the hard work paying off for the team.”

The Girls Varsity Team placed first by a margin of 50 points over second place University, taking first, second, and third place respectively. While the Varsity Boys placed third overall, behind Beckman and University. Both teams will move on to CIF Prelims November 14 at Mt. Sac.

Times/Results (top seven finishers)

Varsity Girls (First with 20 points)
Melanie Powers: 16:59 Pacific Coast League Champion
Marisa Cummings: 17:17 2nd place
Kristina Funahashi: 17:32 3rd place
Ashleee Powers: 17:46 6th place
Shelby Perez: 18:08 8th place
Sarah Keddington: 18:20 10th place
Ali Hummelberg: 18:31

Varsity Boys (Third with 63 points)
Austin Barvin: 15:23 6th place
Blake Myers: 15:37 11th place
Sebastien Welch: 15:37 12th place
Derek Satterfield: 15:46 15th place
Alex Turney: 15:49 19th place
Peter Morris: 16:05 22nd place
Kjell Wolker: 16:06 23rd place

JV Girls (First with 21 points, won by a margin of 32 points)
Amanda Garrett: 18:54 Girls JV League Champ
Christine Light: 20:00 2nd place
Allie Garrett: 20:09 4th place
Madison Turner: 20:36 6th place
Sarah Light: 20:45 8th place
Devon Hoppe: 20:46 9th place
Rachael Somerville: 21:22 12th place

JV Boys (First with 58 points, finishing in front of Uni by two points)
Zac Asdourian: 16:33 5th place
Chris Burke: 16:47 9th place
Julien Crockett: 16:51 10th place
Sam Parks: 17:02 14th place
James Seals: 17:21 20th place
Cole Satterfield: 17:40 27th place
Miguel Rivero: 18:33 33rd place

Fresh/Soph Girls (First with 19 points, won by a margin of 37 points)
Kristen Rivera: 18:29 Pacific Coast League Champ
Darcie Marshall: 18:59 3rd place
Megan Zwerling: 18:59 4th place
Sarah Hoppe: 19:22 5th place
Sara Silverman: 19:23 6th place
Marika Gerken: 19:29 7th place
Nica Sabouni: 19:40 13th place

Fresh/Soph Boys (First with 50 points, finishing in front of San Juan Hills by three points)
Michael Keasey: 16:34 2nd place
Teddy Parks: 16:50 7th place
Jake Woodyard: 17:04 11th place
Dylan Gronendyke: 17:13 14th place
Troy Hardy: 17:21 16th place
Spencer Christoff: 17:47 26th place
Nick Furgatch: 17:52 27th place

The course is well known, and the competition is all too familiar, yet each cross-country cluster meet presents a new challenge. Last Thursday the CdM cross-country team battled it out with the other five teams in the Pacific Coast League in the second cluster meet of the season at Mason Park.
“I was really happy about this race because the weather was perfect and everyone seemed to do really well,” said junior Peyton Wolonsky.
After weeks of hot weather the athletes were blessed with clouds covering the sun and low temperatures. With the luck of great racing conditions, runners were ready to race their best. As the last meet before League Finals all the athletes made it their goal to work their hardest and set a new personal record.
“Everyone worked really hard because they wanted to do their best in one of the last meets. I have never seen so many people set a new personal record in one meet,” said junior Sarah Light.
With almost every athlete setting a new personal record the scores for each race were also in CdM’s favor.
Frosh/soph boys won their race with 45 points and frosh/soph girls did the same with 18 points. Junior varsity boys and girls also won their races with 38 and 20 points respectively. Varsity boys ranked third in their race with 58 points and varsity girls took first with 23 points.
“After this race I have a good feeling that we are going to do well at League Finals,” said Light.
Pacific Coast League Finals are this Thursday at Irvine Park, a course that is also very familiar to the athletes, which seems to be a good omen. Hopefully CdM will keep up their hard work and win the league title.

Varsity boys at the begining of the race.

Last Friday the CdM Cross Country Team did well at Mt. Sac.

It was hot up in the mountains; temperatures were in the 90’s Freshmen, Sophomore and JV races. Luckily, temperatures cooled for the varsity races.

Mt. Sac is a very unique course in that is revered amongst runners all over the United States.  Runners from all over the county were present at the invitational.  The course is well know for being extremely difficult containing large three extremely challenging hills. Every year CdM runners come back sore legs and stories to tell.  Christine Light, a senior, said “The race is really hard.  There are these three bigs hills.  I hate them.”

Unfortunately, for the runners, they have to return to the hard course once more this year.  Christine said, “I’m really not looking forward to it, it’s such a hard race.”

All the teams did fairly well. There scores can be seen below.

Junior Varsity Boys
There were no official results for the Open JV races. These times are the times that were taken at the finish, overall places are not known
Chris Burke 17:49
Zach Asdourian 18:11
Julien Crockett 18:26
James Seals 18:29
Sam Parks 18:37
Miguel Rivero 20:20
Cole Satterfield 20:39
Ishan Ghose 20:40
Misha Pakvasa 20:45
Alex Ludlow 20:45
Kevin Dales 21:07
Zac Cabin 21:12
Christian Lesko 21:40
Drew Payton 21:55
Harrison Martell 22:10
Alex Williford 22:30
Adam Akil 22:56
Sunny Dharod 22:58
Wes Parsons 23:03
Henri Crockett 24:13
Andrew Chiou 24:39
Jack Murphy 25:10
Sean Lee 25:29
Andre Vo 26:56

Junior Varsity Girls
No official results for this race. These are the times taken at the finish line.
Rachael Somerville 22:51
Leila Pozin 22:58 (within 4 seconds of her season PR!)
Sarah Light 23:30
Devon Hoppe 23:35
Maddie Turner 23:40
Alexa Wilcox 23:41
Alyssa Hunter 26:02

Freshman Boys
The boys finished 3rd out of 12 teams. They had 82 points. West Torrance was second with 67 points and Santa Margarita was first with 64 points.
114 athletes clocked finishes.
Teddy Parks 19:21 12th place
Dylan Gronendyke 19:40 16th
Troy Hardy 19:42 18th
Greg May 19:53 21st
Alex Knauer 19:54 22nd
Nick Furgatch 20:03 27th
Denis Livinski 20:22 32nd
Curtis Wilder 20:24 33rd
Preston Kim 20:45 41st
Stephen Tenney 20:57 48th
Michael Ivie 22:28 67th
Cole Redfearn 23:07 76th
Grant Brown 24:38 86th
Evan Davies 24:49 88th
Eric Chu 25:23 94th
Nick Cord 25:23 95th
Chris Weinberger 26:27 102nd
David Peters 26:31 104th
Jack Stafford 27:17 108th
YongKyoo Kim 28:54 110th
Darian Vaden 28:56 11th

Freshmen Girls
The Freshman girls were third out of three teams with 62 points. St. Lucy’s were second with 56 points and Cerritos were first with 18 points.
67 athletes clocked finish times for this race.
Julia Cordes 24:54 22nd
Alana Hunter 26:37 38th
Sam DeVaney 27:24 45th
Devon Tucker 27:50
Molly Rovzar 27:51 49th
Holly Farason 32:16 59th

Sophomore Boys
The sophomore boys finished 9th out of 16 teams. They had 225 points.  135 athletes logged finishes for this race.
Kyle Iverson 18:37
Michael Keasey 18:48 28th
Matt Francini 19:07 37th
Spencer Christoff 19:47 45th
Will Lyle 21:12 73rd
Alex Wang 21:24 78th
Chris McKeag 21:27 80th
Shane Somerville 21:39 85th
Andrew Clary 23:22 114th
Ted Striegel 23:42 118th
Kevin Hoffman 26:06 126th
Jason Scholnick 33:12 135th

Sophomore Girls
The girls finished 3rd out of 6 teams with 52 points.
76 athletes logged finishes in this race.
Kylie Walker 20:55 1st place!
Nica Sabouni 22:52 7th
Vicky Juhasz 22:53 8th
Noelle Gooding 24:17 18th
Claire Vance 24:32 22nd
Aubrey Duehring 24:33 23rd
Emily Tomei 25:51 35th
Rachel Cashion 26:04 37th
Emma Kaye 26:04 38th
Taylor Stefano 29:13 63rd

Girls JV National Championships!
The girls are your repeat JV Division 3 National Champions! They finished first out of 6 teams with 25 points. Mountain Brook (Alabama) was second with 101 points!
121 athletes clocked times in this race. (They raced Divisions 3, 4, & 5 together)
Sarah Keddington 20:17 1st place!
Sarah Hoppe 21:13 3rd
Darcie Marshall 21:20 4th
Amanda Bastien 21:31 8th
Sara Silverman 21:32 9th
Amanda Garrett 21:35 10th
Christine Light 21:37 11th

Varsity Girls
The girls finished first out of 17 teams with 67 points. Cathedral (San Diego) was second with 110 points.
114 athletes clocked finishes in this race.
Melanie Powers 18:01 1st place!
Marisa Cummings 19:18 13th
Ashlee Powers 19:31 15th
Kristina Funahashi 19:38 18th
Shelby Perez 20:06 26th
Alex Dickens 21:29 67th
Marika Gerken 21:53 79th

Varsity Boys
Theboys finished 7th out of 20 teams with 201 points. 146 athletes logged finishes in this race.
Austin Barvin 16:18 14th
Peter Morris 16:39 31st
Sebastien Welch 16:52 50th
Blake Myers 16:53 52nd
Derek Satterfield 17:00 62nd
Alex Turney 17:06 70th
Kjell Wolker 17:07 71st

On Saturday the boys and girls varsity cross country team dominated the Central Park Invitational, both winning first place.

Scenically located along a lake, the three mile course features asphalt, grass, dirt, and two sandy hills. According to team captain Sebastien the real struggle is the hill on mile two. “[It] hurts to walk up, much less then sprint. And the downhill is so steep that, you can only see where you end up, and not the actually slope itself,” said Sebastien in reference to the sandy hill.

The girls won with 30 points, ahead of the second place winner Yucca Mountain by 38 points. The boys won with 44 points, ahead of the second place winner Rancho Alamitos by 18 points.

Due to the SAT and possible swine-flu sickness four varsity girls runners were unable to compete along with two varsity boys runners. The sheer depth of the boys and girls teams, however, allowed both to succeed.

Despite the fact that varsity runners Ali Hummelberg, Kristina Funahasahi, Christine Light, and Allie Garret were unable to run, the girls finished with lead runners, seniors Melanie Powers and Marisa Cummings, placing first and second in 17.53 and 18.29 minutes.

On the boys side junior Austin Barvin came in first for CDM placing fifth overall with a time of 16.15 minutes. Eighth overall and coming in second for CDM, sophomore Blake Meyers finished with a time of 16.27 despite taking a wrong turn. Team captains Sebastien Welch and Sam Parks were among with those unable to race, but provided tremendous support.

The next race is the Orange County Championship on Saturday, October 17 at Irvine Park.

Other Results:
Boys Freshmen: 3rd overall
Boys Sophmore: 8th overall
Girls Fresh/Soph: 1st overall
Boys JV: 3rd overall
Girls JV: 2nd overall

The sun was beating down on the runners as they navigated through the Irvine Park cross-country course. Going through narrow trails and over hills in the hot and dry weather the Corona del Mar Cross Country team battled all elements at their first league meet of the season on Thursday.

“It was definitely a challenging race. Not just the course but also the 95-degree weather and the seven percent humidity. But overall we did really well,” said junior Devon Hoppe.
CdM runners had a tough race but in the end everyone pulled through and worked as a team in order to get as many wins as possible.
“The first league meet was really good. Our team looks really promising this year,” said senior Christine Light. The Sea Kings won every race except boy’s varsity who got second by only five points.
Girl’s varsity runner Melanie Powers placed first overall. Marisa Cummings also ran in her first race since being injured and got fourth in the varsity race. Sebastien Welch placed fifth in the varsity race. Junior varsity girls had another victory as Amanda Bastien took first place. Boy’s junior varsity runner Kjell Wolker got second and boy’s frosh/soph runner Kevin Gordiner got first place. Lastly, girl’s frosh/soph swept the race with Sarah Silverman, Megan Zwerling, Alex Dickens, and Sarah Hoppe taking first through fifth.
At the end of the day the temperature finally began to cool and the cross-country team was able to relax and enjoy their wins at the first league meet of the season. Hopefully CdM will be as victorious at the Central Park Invitational in Huntington Beach on Saturday and keep up their undefeated title.

Over the weekend the Corona del Mar cross country team sent their best to the Stanford Cross Country Invitational. The team earned sixth place overall and first in the Southern Section.
Team Captain Sebastien Welch said that the team’s goal was to get top five at the meet. Unfortunately, the team was a mere seven points shy from achieving their goal. Although the team did not meet their goal, Welch remains optimistic, “It was our first time running together as a team, we are still working out the kinks with our different racing styles… the team shows lots of potential and will hopefully continue to develop that potential so we can make it to State this year.”
At Stanford the temperature was well over 100 degrees during their races. Being accustomed to Newport Beach weather, the heat made it extremely difficult for the team to run. Senior Krisitna Funahashi said, “It was really, really hot and it was really hard to run, but I think we all tried hard, ran through it, and ended up doing really well overall.”
The heat was not the only difficulty the team faced. The course at Stanford was slightly longer than the average high school cross country race. Welch said, “The course was a 5k, 3.1 miles, compared to the usual 3 mile high school course, this adds about 35 seconds to your 3 mile time.”
Overall Welch seemed satisfied with their performance, saying that, “Half of our team didn’t run that well due to many factors, so to still get 6th was an accomplishment.”

The order for the team’s scoring:
Sebastien Welch 16:45 22nd
Austin Barvin 16:54 28th
Alex Turnee 17:31 67th
Blake Myers 17:31 68th
Peter Morris 17:37 76th
Derek Satterfield 17:59 102nd
Kjell Wolker 18:33 142nd

Out of breath and feeling doubt about reaching the last mile, you mentally want to stop the race but your body keeps on moving. Each step begins to hurt but the adrenaline rush is too tremendous to quit. Welcome to the crazy sport of cross-country.
With the official cross-country season just beginning, CdM has already made it’s mark. The 29th Annual Woodbridge Cross Country Classic helped CdM prove that they have what it takes to be champions this year.
“Woodbridge is a really flat course, so it’s a fast race. We had a lot of people running personal records,” said junior Sarah Light.
Woodbridge was more of an individual race since athletes ran by grade level instead of the usual varsity, junior varsity, and frosh/soph levels. Despite this, CdM athletes ran extremely well.
“The girl’s team is very strong. We are an extremely deep team and we have about 20 girls that can break 21 minutes, which is pretty impressive,” said Light. The senior girls came in first place out of 24 teams and Melanie Powers led the race triumphantly. Sophomore girls joined the senior girls in winning their race as well. Junior and freshman girls finished second and sixth respectively.
As the girls completed their cool downs, it was time for the boys to show what they were made of.
“The race went well overall. We put three guys sub 16 minutes, which the guys team hasn’t done in a while, and as a whole we put seven under 17minutes,” said senior Sebastian Welch. The senior boys placed seventh out of 22 teams. The junior boys won their race and the sophomore boys finished eighth. Lastly, the freshmen boys completed the race in second place.
As shown by the records set in the Woodbridge meet, CdM should expect a lot from the cross-country team this year.
“We expect one of our strongest seasons on the men’s side this year in recent history. We have tons of fresh talent and a lot of enthusiasm to do well this year. We are aiming to be League Champions this year and make it to the State meet as well,” said Welch.
With the Stanford Invitational meet coming up soon, the varsity runners will be able to work together as a team and become one step closer to winning state this year!