DFAL Championships
Hidden Valley Park
Martinez CA
Saturday, November 3, 2012

RESULTS AT BOTTOM OF PAGE

Varsity Boys Extend Title Streak; Leach Shocks Favorites for Girls' Individual Crown; Kuckuk, Lawrie Top PR List

Back from a two week layoff due to injury, David Kuckuk (15) returned with a vengeance, knocking over a minute off his pervious two-mile best to finish tenth in the frosh soph boys' race at Saturday's DFAL Championshps on the Hidden Valley Park course.

The performance earned Kuckuk a spot on the all-league team and sealed the victory for his frosh soph boys' squad. Parker Lothamer (15) won the race in 11:12, with teammates Sam Lee (15) and Kevin Buckley (15) also among the top five.

Hannah Mattioda (15) used a hard second mile to run away with the frosh soph girls' individual title. Her squad pulled off an upset over Acalanes. Robin Powell (16) and Emily Lawrie (16) finished second and third, respectively. Lawrie's mark was an improvement by 1:16.

In the junior varsity boys' competition, Isaac Valverde (14) dominated wire to wire, cracking the eleven minute mark in 10:52. Gryphon Goodrich (13) surged over the final 400m to claim second place, while Rod Farvard (13) was third, helping the Cougars to a fifth consecutive JV championship.

The surprise of the day may have been the victor of a varsity girls' contest that saw four athletes clustered at the font of the race through two and a half miles. At the base of Finale Hill, Acalanes' Annie Marggraff and Kelly Collins ran stride for stride with Campolindo's Rachel Johnson (15) and Brighie Leach (15).

Johnson pressed the hill. Collins fell off the back end of the group, leaving three to challenge for the individual title. As the trio hit the grass, Marggraff and Johnson battled, with Leach trailing. Around the final bend, approximately 80 meters from the finish, Johnson had the lead. But Marggraff pulled ahead just a few strides later.

Then, finding a new gear with only 20 meters left on the course, Leach surged to the front. The sophomore, who had previously never won a varsity race in her career, held on to the lead as the cluster crossed the finish.

With the win, Leach extends the Cougars' streak of individual varsity winners to five years.

With a season best performance, Haley Shipway (14) ran third for the varsity squad and seventh overall, eclipsing her course record set during the 2010 state championship season. Hana Sun (16) dropped 45 seconds from her race time of ten days prior to finish tenth in the field of 45. She was the second freshman overall.

The day was topped with a varsity boys' win. The team title is the fifth consecutive league championship for Campolindo. Aidan Goltra's (14) runner-up time of 15:32 is a new Hidden Valley Park school record. Meanwhile, Cameron Sun (13) continued his resurgence, landing 13th place with a 39 second career improvement on the 3.0 miles course.

PHOTO GALLERY FROM TIM FONG HERE!

Boys course record falls at DFAL cross country championships

By Phil Jensen
pjensen@bayareanewsgroup.com
Posted: 11/03/2012 08:11:13 PM PDT
Updated: 11/03/2012 08:11:14 PM PDT

Many things were falling Saturday at the Diablo Foothill Athletic League cross country championships -- a course record, a league championship drought, a winning streak, and any perception that cross country races can't be decided in the last few yards of the race.

Miramonte High's Tyler Hanson broke the Hidden Valley Park-Martinez 3-mile course record in winning the boys race in 15 minutes, 18.3 seconds. He was one step behind Campolindo's Aidan Goltra at the bottom of the final hill of the race, approximately 600 yards from the finish. But Hanson charged up the hill and finished 14.1 seconds ahead of Goltra, who was second.

"That was the most difficult race this season," Hanson said. "What I've been doing is holding on and putting a solid kick at the end."

In an incredible finish to the girls race, three different runners held the lead in the final 80-yard straightaway.
Campolindo's Rachel Johnson held the lead at the beginning of the final straightaway, but was passed by Acalanes' Annie Marggraff as all three runners were within yards of each other.

Campolindo sophomore Brighie Leach, who was in third, surged into the lead in approximately the last 15 yards of the race and won in 18:32.0. Marggraff was second (18:32.2) and Johnson was third (18:33.1).

"I saw Rachel start to get passed, and I said 'Campo has to win," said Leach, who didn't lead in the race until the final yards. "It's like that extra energy you don't have until the last 50 meters of the race."

Las Lomas won the girls championship team title with a score of 39 points and clinched the outright DFAL title. It is the girls team's first league championship since 1975, said Knights girls coach Cynthia Green. It also broke the Campolindo girls team's six-year winning streak at the DFAL championships.

The Knights placed four runners in the top nine and five in the top 12 in the girls race. They were led by a fifth-place from freshman Chloe Hansel (19:24.1). Other Las Lomas scorers were Madison Hight (sixth, 19:31.3), Clare Orton (eighth, 19:52.4), Megan Wenzel (ninth, 19:59.0) and Emma Hight (12th, 20:11.5).

Campolindo won the boys championship team title with a score of 43. It also won the outright DFAL title. Besides Goltra, Campolindo's other scorers were Adam Hathaway (fourth, 15:59.5), Walter Brennan (10th, 16:34.6), Michael Peterson (12th, 16:38.4) and Kevin Fong (16th, 16:50.2).

BOYS' VARSITY
Grd TOTAL PR CR Plc.
AIDAN GOLTRA 11 1532 2
ADAM HATHAWAY 12 1559 4
WALTER BRENNAN 11 1634 10
MICHAEL PETERSON 10 1638 12
CAMERON SUN 12 1643 13
KEVIN FONG 12 1650 16
BEN WEINBERG 11 1656 18
WILL MORAN 11 1713 23

Campolindo 43, Acalanes 49, Miramonte 70, Las Lomas 104, Dougherty Valley 119, Dublin 139, Alhambra 161

BOYS' FROSH SOPH
Grd TOTAL PR CR Plc.
PARKER LOTHAMER 10 1112 1
SAM LEE 10 1118 3
KEVIN BUCKLEY 10 1123 4
NATHANIEL SAUERBERG 9 1128 1128
DAVID KUCKUK 10 1144 10
SEAN PAPPA 10 1150 11
DREW GUSTAFSON 10 1159 16
BRADLEY ZHU 10 1222 31
CALLAN BEAVER 9 1233 37
AARON LIN 9 1247 47
THOMAS HEUTMAKER 9 1310 62
BRANDON EWERT 9 1350 92
MIGUEL BALIWAG 9 1403 97
NICK BISHOP 9 1415 104
WILL BUCKLEY 9 1420 105
TRENT CAPURRO 10 1528 120

Campolindo 24, Dublin 68, Las Lomas 72, Miramonte 93, Dougherty Valley 123, Acalanes 145, Alhambra Inc.

BOYS' JV
Grd TOTAL PR CR Plc.
ISAAC VALVERDE 11 1052 1
GRYPHON GOODRICH 12 1104 2
ROD FARVARD 12 1106 3
IAN GILBERT 11 1117 9
JOSH KOENIGSBERG 12 1118 10
TYLER TAKATA 11 1126 12
TYRONE YANAGA 11 1137 15
CHRIS GARVEY 11 1140 17
NATHANE TUCKER 23 1156 23
OMID BOOZARPOUR 11 1212 31
COLE WHITLEY 11 1235 39
JONATHAN SAMENZA 9 1257 46
TYLER BOHON 10 1315 54
KIERAN FARA 9 1327 57
JOSH STEAINGRUBE 9 1330 61
NICK LOPRESTI 9 1349 64

Campolindo 25, Las Lomas 43, Dougherty Valley 85, Miramonte 107, Acalanes 126, Dublin 167, Alhambra Inc.

GIRLS' VARSITY
Grd TOTAL PR CR Plc.
BRIGHIE LEACH 10 1832 1
RACHEL JOHNSON 10 1833 3
HALEY SHIPWAY 11 1937 7
HANA SUN 9 2005 10
SARAH ORDERS 12 2111 24
MARY ORDERS 10 2126 28
ELLEN HANN 11 2139 30

Las Lomas 39, Campolindo 43, Acalanes 75, Miramonte 84, Dougherty Valley 124, Alhambra 166, Dublin Inc.

GIRLS' FROSH SOPH
Grd TOTAL PR CR Plc.
HANNAH MATTIODA 10 1327 1
ROBIN POWELL 9 1349 2
EMILY LAWRIE 9 1355 3
ANIA KOSSAKOWSKI 9 1424 9
SARAH SHIPWAY 9 1501 18
SOPHIA SETTLE 9 1520 24
NATASHA MCCOLLOUGH 9 1711 48
SARA SANTAGUIDA 9 1911 61

Campolindo 32, Acalanes 47, Las Lomas 68, Miramonte 95, Dublin 112, Alhambra Inc., Dougherty Valley Inc.

GIRLS' JV
Grd TOTAL PR CR Plc.
TORI OTO 11 1433 9
HEATHER EAGLE 12 1550 17
MEGAN ZYWICZ 10 1552 18
MERINDA ZYWICZ 12 1624 22
KATE CIMINO 9 1638 27
FINE GUMPERT 9 1653 30
NADIA AQUIL 10 1731 35
KEIKO ENG 9 1752 36
ANA GLOSSON 9 2005 41

Miramonte 31, Acalanes 35, Las Lomas 76, Campolindo 83, Alhambra Inc., Dougherty Valley Inc.