High School Track & Field: CdM boys win big

CORONA DEL MAR — Last year’s Pacific Coast League boys’ track and field dual meet between Corona del Mar High and Woodbridge went down to the wire.

But a couple of Sea Kings didn’t show up for the finish.

“It came down to the mile relay and our guys weren’t even there to run. We had a couple of guys leave [the meet early],” CdM Coach Bill Sumner said. “It came down to that, but it should’ve never come down to that. We should’ve won last year. We didn’t.”

Sumner didn’t have to worry about whether he had any runners in the 4x400-meter relay against Woodbridge on Tuesday. Long before the final race, the Sea Kings had the dual meet between undefeated league teams in the bag.

CdM’s boys moved one step closer to winning the league title outright after beating Woodbridge, 84-43. Two league dual meets and the league finals remain.

Last year, CdM was able to share the league crown with Woodbridge by claiming the league finals. Sumner doesn’t see anyone catching his Sea Kings this year.

“It would be a major upset,” Sumner said whether CdM’s boys could lose at Irvine on Thursday. “It would be like [the] UCI [men’s basketball team] beating Louisville.”

While CdM’s boys improved to 3-0 in league, its girls aren’t perfect. Woodbridge’s girls prevailed, 94-33, and the Warriors are now 3-0 in league.

“They show up [in] every event stacked, kind of like us in the boys,” Sumner said of Woodbridge’s girls, which finished first in 13 of the 15 events. “In the boys, we got two or three kids in every event that are pretty decent.”

The Sea Kings’ usual boys standout, Matt Hurst, came through.

The junior began the meet anchoring the 4x100-relay team to a first-place finish in 42.8 seconds and he won the 400 in 50.1 and 200 in 22.0.

Hurst said he wasn’t feeling his best and it was understandable. He competed at the Arcadia Invitational with his 4x400 team on Saturday, when CdM recorded a time of 3 minutes 21.68 seconds in the open meet. The mark is the second best in CdM’s history, behind 3:17.8.

“If it wasn’t for last year, we would’ve had it,” said Hurst, who was an alternate on last year’s 4x400 team that set the school’s top time in the event. “We’re hoping to get there, though. It’ll be close.

“We were four seconds off, but we had a couple of bad handoffs [at the Arcadia Invitational]. We can run faster.”

The Sea Kings’ 4x400 No. 1 mark wasn’t going down on Tuesday. The team didn’t even win the event against the Warriors.

Missing was Troy Hardy, whom Sumner said dealt with the flu. Sumner said he planned to run three of the team’s regular members, Nick McGuinness, Tanner Love and Hurst, along with Reid Meckler.

At first, there was talk Teddy Parks might fill in for Hardy on the 4x400. Parks said he felt pretty good about doing so, especially after pulling out a surprise victory in the 1,600 with a personal-best 4:25.8.

“The guy who got second is really fast,” said Parks of Woodbridge’s Jackson Marshall, who finished in 4:27.3. “He won league in cross country. The plan was to just stick on his butt the whole time and out-kick him at the end. I made him do most of the work because it [was] pretty windy.”

Two other members from the 4x400 team won individual events. Love took home the 800 in 2:01.2 and McGuinness the 300 hurdles in 40.7.

Other CdM boy winners included Spencer Keith (3,200, 9:47.3), Troy Bolus (110 hurdles, 15.2), Braden Brahs (high jump, 6-0), Kai Wilson (shot put, 43-1 1/4) and Nick Storm (discus throw, 143-7).

CdM’s girls first-place finishers were Jacqueline Choe in the 3,200 (11:59.9) and Asha Hardy in the high jump (5-2).

david.carrillo@latimes.com

Twitter: @DCPenaloza