Great Scott! CdM boy in

NORWALK — Before Tim Scott went through his cool down, his shoelaces were untied.

Someone had to remind the Corona del Mar High 1,600-meter runner to tie his shoes before jogging away.

Coach Bill Sumner did. He’s nudged Scott a lot this year.

This time the longtime successful track and field coach focused on just one boy, as Scott was the Sea Kings’ lone male representative at the CIF Southern Section Masters Meet Friday.

The girls were OK, as they always are in major events.

Scott said he felt like a cheerleader being the only CdM boy.

That’s until the five CdM girls, Sumner, teammates, friends and his parents rooted him on en route to qualifying for the State Meet for the first time with a time of 4 minutes, 16.06 seconds.

A personal best for Scott and a 10th-place finish. The qualifying mark to reach Sacramento was 4:16.62. The senior just made it.

Funny because Scott almost never made it to Cerritos College.

“In the beginning of the week, [Sumner] was going to scratch me from the race because I had too much stuff to do,” said Scott, referring to schoolwork before graduating on June 21. “Then I just kind of realized, ‘I don’t really have to practice that much this week. It’s just Friday night.’ ”

Another event and another time for Sumner to push Scott. He knew Scott could actually compete with the 11 other runners vying for state, which begins June 1 with the preliminaries and finals the following day.

Scott on the other hand, Sumner said, saw the mile race as him being the 12th best runner, and thinking not all 12 could advance. He was right, 10 only moved on.

Scott was the last runner to qualify, but also the first CdM boy distance runner to advance to the State Meet since Josh Yelsey did in 2001, when he placed second.

“I just said, ‘Timmy, you can qualify. It’s another second from where you’re at right now,’ ” said Sumner, referring to Scott’s 4:17.84 mark at the Southern Section finals, where he finished fourth in Division III last week. “He’s kind of a hard kid to motivate because he’s one of those guys who is really truly a kickback kid.

“But he was like, ‘It’s only one second, right?’ ”

Correct. Then everyone Friday started regurgitating what Sumner advised him to do during the week leading up to the meet. Stay back, don’t try to keep up with the big boys, Hudson Andrews of Royal, Chad Hall of Big Bear, Adam Cunningham of Milken Community and Dylan Knight of La Sierra, who finished one through four and all under 4:12.

Seeing teammates and friends crowd Scott before the big race, Sumner intervened.

“I was like, ‘Don’t change anything. It’s his style, just leave him alone,’ ” Sumner said. “He gets a little bit nervous. That’s Timmy, very low key, doesn’t do well with a lot of pressure, but he also keeps the pressure away. It’s a lot easier to not worry about it.

“It’s been his style for the last year. He never used to be like that.”

Scott’s answer to changing is easy. On talent alone, Sumner said the University of Arizona-bound student can excel in running. But Scott said he will most likely not run in college.

“It’s been like four years of running,” he said. “I’m kind over it.”

One more meet left. Time to tie those shoelaces again.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or [email protected].