DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:

This isn’t something Corona del Mar High Coach Bill Sumner does every time, mark “third” on the dirt for all his cross country runners to see.

But in his words, the longtime successful coach isn’t used to third place either. So, when the team returned to school Monday after the Stanford Invitational, Shelby Buckley, the team’s star, noticed a change in Sumner.

“Third in a non-seeded race,” Sumner told them. “They looked at me and got quiet.”

Buckley understood the silence, even though the senior placed second in the Division III race at 18 minutes, 28 seconds Saturday. The Sea Kings finished behind, not only Orange Lutheran, but also champ Oak Park, the team CdM smashed at the CIF Southern Section Division III championships last year.

The first time Sumner said in four years that top-ranked Oak Park beat No. 3 CdM and he never recalls seeing No. 2 Orange Lutheran above his Sea Kings in 25 years. Being on a team with only two returnees, including senior Allison Damon, Buckley understood why the younger, inexperienced runners refrained from speaking up.

Can’t now. The results are nowhere from last year, a first-place showing at Stanford. In the big race of all things, not the non-seeded one as Sumner calls it. Buckley expected a slow start, compared to previous years, No. 1 at state the last two years, Southern Section, any championship event the Sea Kings were usually winning.

Granted four runners graduated, going to Division I colleges and leaving Buckley with a challenge. Get the young runners ready by the time postseason arrives.

“She’s on fire,” Sumner said of Buckley. “She’s probably good to go, but she can do better. I expect more out of her. She is Shelby Buckley.”

Teammates notice Buckley’s presence, despite her being 5-foot-3 and 97 pounds.

Buckley has been a regular at the sectional finals, knowing Fresno’s Woodward Park as if it she jogged it each week. She won a section title in Fresno as a freshman, back when she ran for Rosary of Fullerton and before transferring to CdM. The next two visits, fifth, followed up by second.

She has a lot in store for her. Getting freshmen Amanda Bastien and Taylor Hebb and sophomores Marisa Cummings and Sarah Keddington to run with confidence. All of this while trying to pick a college to study at and run for next year, lots to juggle, but Buckley sounds cool, taking everything in stride.

What gets her through every day? Frozen yogurt, chocolate malt is her favorite.

“I need it every night,” she said of the dessert being her sweet course. College coaches know the course would be even sweeter if they had Buckley running and wearing their school colors next year.

UCLA’s coach had dinner with her earlier this week, a couple days before she planned a trip to the University of Washington. Then there’s USC, where her sister Lindsay might run track and field, complicating things for Buckley, who plans to focus on track and field, her favorite sport, in college. Go to USC and run with her sister, like the two did for one year at Rosary, enjoying success, happy times.

“Our team was the best, because everybody was so fun,” she said of 2004, when her sister was a senior. “We would have dress-up days for Halloween, random things, too, like Rainbow Day.”

Sumner’s hoping “Rainbow Day” comes again, with everyone reaching the end of it with the pot of gold going to CdM.

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