CORONA DEL MAR FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR:Rarest of runners

Bill Sumner has seen fire, and he’s seen rain.

But the Corona del Mar High track and field coach could only think of three girls whose drive and passion matched Sarah Cummings, and Sumner estimated 10,000 student athletes have run under his vigilance and guidance since he began coaching.

“Sarah takes it to another level. She’s a special kid,” Sumner said of the school’s Female Athlete of the Year. “There are very few kids that come through our program that you have to get to cut back a little bit. You see them once about every 10 years.

“No matter what you tell them, they always want to do a little bit more, and she’s one of those. I keep the rope kind of tied to make sure she doesn’t overwork.”

Cummings’ dedication to her sport, like those before her, bordered on sadistic. At one point she asked Sumner if she could run another three miles per day on top of the training she was already doing at practice, and the strength training she was doing in the morning by herself.

Liz Morse, who graduated from CdM in 1998, always wanted to go faster or train more. Annie St. Geme, the phenom who left last season for Stanford, was a speed demon, too.

And Mollie Flint, who ran for CdM about 15 years ago, would run cross country in the morning, go to basketball practice in the afternoon, and then play in basketball tournaments at night — regularly.

“When you think about those kinds of kids, there aren’t very many of them,” Sumner said. “Those four names? That’s it.”

Perhaps that’s because it’s the sort of dedication that requires some level of lunacy to stretch one’s body to such lengths.

But the crazy hours of training resulted in big dividends for Cummings, the CIF Southern Section Division III champ (3,200 meters, 10 minutes, 45.16 seconds) who also won the state Division III cross country title. Cummings was also an integral part of the CdM cross country team that was named No. 6 in the nation. She’s competed in the Nike Cross Country National Championships for the past two years, and was one of 32 qualifiers to run in the Footlocker Cross Country Championships, the highest level of competition in the U.S.

Cummings was 10th in the 3,200 at the Nike Outdoor Nationals meet in Greensboro, N.C. this summer with a time of 10 minutes, 34 seconds. She also helped teammates Hilary May, Allison Damon, and Shelby Buckley attempt to break the national record in the 4x1,600 meters. They didn’t succeed in beating the record time of 19:56, but the 20:23 finish was good enough for the national title.

It’s a packed summer for Cummings, a former figure skater, who will head to Princeton this fall, where she’ll continue running. She also finished 14th at the CIF State Championships with a time of 10:54.01.

“I don’t think there’s anybody that could do higher than she has,” Sumner said.

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or [email protected].