Sum runs to 2nd-place finish

Senior Steven Sum stepped up to the starting line on Nov. 29 as he prepared to run at the state finals at Woodward Park, a 3.1-mile course near Fresno. Seconds before the starter’s gun went off, he felt as if time was slowing down, lingering in a moment of suspense.

With the crowd cheering and his heart pumping, he was soon on the course. Immediately Sum got into his familiar rhythm while maintaining control. Having maintained a fast pace, he crossed the finish line with a time of 15:17, coming in second by eight seconds out of 195 runners in the Division III race. Austin Tamagno from Brea Olinda High School in Brea, California won first place, eight seconds ahead of Sum.

Sum, the captain of the boys’ cross country team, ended up ranking sixth in the state among runners in all divisions.  The Falcon team finished in 15th place in Division III.

Fellow teammate senior Andrew Harter ran a time of 16:30, followed by juniors Matthew Peterson, who ran 16:54, Stephen Law,who ran 16:59, senior Rohith Krishna, who ran with a time of 17:08 and junior Kevin Duong Le, who ran 17:31, and Sum’s younger brother, sophomore Nicholas Sum, ran 17:58.

The senior started running when he joined the Redwood Middle School cross country team in sixth grade to “get some exercise.” After having an outstanding first season, Sum’s coach asked him if he would be interested in trying out for Junior Olympics. Sum agreed gladly.

The Junior Olympics race took place in Virginia with more than 300 competitors. Sum ran a time of 10:39 on the 3K course and finished in 19th place. He experienced the “entire race like an adrenaline rush.”

“Everything just seemed really big and new,” Sum said. “The meet was huge which is crazy to think about, especially [as a sixth grader].”

This season, he said his biggest accomplishment was running his fastest 5K time of 15:10 at the Stanford Invitational on Sept. 27.

“It was a really great time and just a culmination of four years of hard work,” Sum said.

Sum uses many tactics and strategies in order to maintain a good pace. For the most part, his race is “crowded with thoughts of strategy, bracing himself for surges and sizing up [his] opponents.”

“If I know [my opponent] well, I sort of know how [he] usually runs the race,” Sum said. “I try to change my strategy to allow me a better chance to be successful.”

In these situations, Sum tries to keep a good pace to stay close to the other runners. This allows him to store his energy until the last part of the race, where he can overtake them.

Sum continues to run because of his love for competition and to “prove to [himself] and everyone else that [he’s] accomplished.”

According to varsity teammate Peterson, a new member on the cross country team this year, Sum has been on the team the longest time and “mentors [them], makes [them] better runners and is very supportive.”

He helps out his team members when the coach isn’t there, leading them on runs and different workouts.

Sum plans to continue his passion for the sport by running for a collegiate cross country team. He was first contacted by college coaches during the middle of the summer after junior year. Also this year, the UC Berkeley cross country coach went to the CIF states competition to watch his performance.

Many Division I schools like Yale and Harvard have reached out to Sum and want to recruit him. He said he wants to focus on academics along with cross country. So far, Sum is still looking for the right fit.

“I choose based on how much I like the school [and] the team when I visit,” Sum said.

Most of the schools he’s interested in, especially Ivy Leagues, do not offer athletic scholarships, but Sum said that for schools that are interested in him will send him a “likely letter” in around the middle of December. This letter will likely accept Sum to the school.

“I relish the opportunity to race against amazing competition,” Sum said. “[And cross country] is something I really love.”