DAL
Center Meet #1 RESULTS AT BOTTOM OF PAGE
Cougars Make Big First Impression, Win 55 of 56 Match ups to Open New League Both frosh soph teams did their part to set the right tone at Wednesday's inaugural Diablo Athletic League cross country center meet at Hidden Valley Park, where the Cougars rolled to wins in 55 of the 56 dual match ups across the 6 divisions. The meet began with a surprising surge for the boys' youngsters, sparked by Colin Lekki's (19) come-from-behind win. Also moving up in the 2nd half on the rugged 2-mile course was the freshman trio of Pablo Nguyen (20), Owen Hunger (20) and Dylan Cronin (20). The scoring was completed by the vastly improved Max Essl (19), who knocked another 23 seconds off his course best to help the boy's squad to 15-point perfect scores against 10 out of 11 opponents. The only complete team to break up the Cougar sweep was College Park. Maddie House (20) and the rest of her team stayed poised in the early going of the frosh soph girls' race as other competitors streaked to the front. The superior fitness of the Cougars was evident as House, along with Kira D'Iorio (19) and Sarah Naughten (20), breezed by opponents on their ascent of Finale Hill to capture 3 of the top 4 places. The frosh soph girls' races featured some of the biggest improvements for the Campolindo harriers, including drops of over a minute for Catherine Zhang (20), Tracy Si (20), Jacklyn Wang (19) and Roni Ayalon (19). The top improvement on the day came from Kate Norton (20), who finished 39th in the race and exactly 2 minutes and 26 seconds ahead of her pervious 2-mile PR. The school's longest undefeated streak was defended with an emphatic win by the junior varsity boys. The Cougars looked a bit greedy, snatching 7 of the top 10 places overall and tallying 10 perfect scores. Thibualt Gourlin (18) broke away in the final 400m to take the individual win while Ethan Sauerberg (18) closed well to finish 2nd. Jeremy Ahn (18) and Derek He (18) continued to demonstrate what a summer of consistent training can do, improving by 25 and 24 seconds, respectively. The lone loss of the day came at the hands of the Falcons, who took advantage of an uncharacteristically broad pack margin. College Park placed 2 athletes in front of the Cougars' 2nd finisher and 4 athletes in front of the Cougars' 3rd finisher to steal a 3-point victory, 26-29. Juliet Arnswald (17) came back from recent injury to earn runner-up honors while international endurance start Petra Nord (17) finished 5th. The most improved JV girl was Grace Stafford, who knocked 1:07 from her pervious best to finish 47th overall. Predictably, the varsity boys out-classed the rest of the field over the 3-mile HVP course. Clayton Valley, a division 2 school, was the only team to score more than 19 points against the defending NCS division 3 champions. After a conservative start, Jared Yabu (17) turned on the afterburners to pull away from Miramonte's Jonathan Fierro for the individual win. While the pack margin was over a minute, the Cougars did manage to place 4 in the top 10 and all 7 athletes in the top 16. The most dramatic competition of the afternoon was surely the varsity girls' race, where the defending league champions were pushed to the brink by the return of a foe from long ago. It's been 8 years since the Cougar and Falcons both resided in the DFAL and contributed to what was then considered the most competitive league in California. In just their 1st face-off in the newly convened DAL, the 2 squad fell back into their old habits. A tightly packed Falcon squad took advantage of the under-maned Cougars. Hannah Ruane (18) and Isabella Chao (18) finished over a minute ahead of the 1st College Park runner, but with the dual scoring format, the purple pack was able to neutralize that effort with advantages at the 3rd, 4th and 5th positions. Luckily, Kira Riegelhuth (19), who overcame injury to finish in the number 5 position on the team, was able stay ahead of College Park's 6th and 7th runners to preserve a 1-point win and a perfect record.
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BOYS'
VARSITY Campolindo 15, Acalanes 50
BOYS'
FROSH SOPH Campolindo 15, Acalanes 50
BOYS'
JV Campolindo 15, Acalanes 50 |
GIRLS'
VARSITY Campolindo 15, Acalanes 42
GIRLS'
FROSH SOPH Campolindo 15, Acalanes Inc.
GIRLS'
JV Campolindo 15, Acalanes 50 |
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