XC Wins 5 of 6 Titles at DAL Meet
November 9, 2016
5 of 6 squads came away victorious at the 2016 DAL cross country championships, held at Hidden Valley Park on Saturday, November 4. The only Campolino squad to fall short of a league title was the junior varsity girls, who finished a respectable 2nd overall.
The senior heavy varsity boys’ team outdistanced runner-up Miramonte by 48 points. Niki Moore and Kyle Flett paced the lead pack though the first mile before teammates Jared Yabu, Richard Gong and Ray Diaz charged ahead with contenders from Miramonte, Las Lomas and Clayton Valley.
At the 2-mile mark, Yabu turned up the intensity again, building a significant gap on the rest of the field that he would maintain through the finish. “I just had the confidence that I could maintain my pace,” said Yabu.
Yabu gave credit to his teammates for being dominant in the early stages. “As a team, we worked together and kept our pack together.”
The boys’ finished with all 7 athletes in the top 16, which earned each an “all-league” recognition.
In the varsity girls race, Hannah Ruane and Bella Chao beat out rival Cassidy Haskell of Miramonte to grab the number 1 and 2 spots, respectively, in the 3-mile race.
Cougar sophomores dominated the 2-mile frosh-soph boys’ race as Colin Lekki, Edward Buckley, and Cameron Iniguez-Reyes finished 1-2-3, respectively. Lekki had also won the two preceding DAL races, and claimed the outright individual league crown with his sub-11-minute performance.
An impressive showing from the junior varsity boys extended their winning streak to 9 years. Junior Andrew Tseng surged through the 2nd mile to take the win while junior teammates Timothy Sams and Thibault Gourlin as well as seniors Nick Wolford and Dylan Hoover all finished in the top 6.
“Individually I just had to be agressive,” said Tseng, who was also confident that his squad would come through with the victory. “I knew we had the ability. I had a lot of faith in my teammates.”
The JV girls, who had been close behind College Park all season, managed to maintain their runner-up status in spite of key injuries that had top runners like senior Petra Nord on the sidelines.
The frosh-soph girls prevailed with the clutch efforts of freshmen Paloma Hancock, Ellie Guthrie and Sarah Naughten, and sophomores Chloe Guthrie and Adithi Subramaniam helping to turn the tables on the Northgate Broncos, who had previously beaten the Cougars on October 26.
Both varsity squads now move on the the NCS championships on November 19 at Hayward High School where they will attempt to defend their 3-year section title streaks.
