Boys track: Sea Kings escape with win

Tony Altobelli

IRVINE - For Corona del Mar boys track and field coach Bill Sumner,

Thursday’s Pacific Coast League’s meet with University was interesting,

to say the least.

Chaos reigned supreme, but the Sea Kings held on for a 68-67 win over the

Trojans, sending Sumner’s blood pressure to new heights.

“That meet was enough to give even me more gray hairs,” Sumner said. “I

came in here knowing my hands were full and we couldn’t afford too many

mistakes.”

It’s pretty ironic that it was the jumping events that nearly leapfrogged

the Trojans past CdM (5-0, 4-0 in league). University took the top two

spots in the high jump, went 2-3 in the long jump and swept the triple

jump, due to no CdM participants.

“That’s a big thorn in my side,” Sumner said. “It’s easy to blame the

kids, but in this case, the coaches have to take the blame for this one.

You work with the jumpers and your job is to get them on the line ready

to compete. Next week, instead of training the kids, I might have to

train the coaches.”

Despite the miscommunication, there were some positives that came from

the two-school showdown.

Junior Matt Moore was a double winner for CdM, placing first in the

100-meter (11.52) and 200-meter runs (23.56), while junior Josh Yelsey

won the 800 (2:08.0) and 1,600 (4:48.0) runs.

Also taking first for the Sea Kings were senior Reed Glyer in the 110

high hurdles (16.40) and senior Kevin Kramer in the 400 (53.64).

In the field events, Sean Fenton kept rolling along, winning the discus

(156-5) and shot put (51-9 1/2), both by a wide margin over the rest of

the pack.

“Sean did what he was supposed to, just like he has all year long,”

Sumner said. “It’s nice to have a guy like that to count on week in and

week out.”

Daniel Marshall helped take a bite out of the triple jump faux pas, tying

for first with a mark of 17-10.

But perhaps the difference in the meet came at the pole vault where Erik

Knuppel (11-6) and Riley Watson (11-0) went 2-3 in the standings,

sticking four valuable points onto CdM’s side.

“University has a very good pole vault program,” Sumner said. “It was a

nice surprise to go 2-3 in that event against some pretty tough

competition. That might have been the difference in the meet.”

The boys’ 400 relay squad of Glyer, Kramer, Adam Hoyt and Moore ran a

46.1 for first place.

The Sea Kings will participate in the Orange County Championships on

Friday beginning at 8:30 a.m. at Trabuco Hills High.