Wildcats run to Los Angeles indoor victory

By Dick Sparrer

Michelle Beritzhoff had just helped the Los Gatos girls basketball team to a victory the night before, and she would lead the Wildcats into the Central Coast Section playoffs a few days later. But on Feb. 19, she was in Southern California with the Los Gatos girls track team, hoping to win a medal in the 4x800 relay at the Los Angeles Indoor Invitational at the L.A. Sports Arena.

But the odds didn't really favor the Cats.

Beritzhoff is a returning star for the Cats, but the sophomore hadn't practiced one day on the track. She would lead off the relay, and hand the baton to freshman Carolyn Penner, who had yet to compete in a track event at the high school level.

So what could Gatos coach Willie Harmatz expect from his young quartet? How does first place sound?

Beritzhoff and Penner teamed with Simone Drucker and Heather Hennessy to finish first in the 4x800 in 9:51.1, finishing a second ahead of runnerup Long Beach Poly in the 24-team field.

"We ran the 10th best time in Los Gatos history," said Harmatz. "And it was indoors, which is much tougher to run."

Beritzhoff opened with a 2:24.7 in her 800, "a time she didn't even expect," said Harmatz.

Penner followed with a 2:28.8 and Drucker, a transfer from Harbor, ran 2:34.2.

Hennessy, the only state qualifier from Los Gatos last spring, anchored the relay in 2:20.2 to help clinch the win.

Gatos also finished first in its heat and third overall in the 4x400 relay with Penner (62.5), Aly Chavez (60.0), Drucker (61.2) and Hennessy (60.6) running 4:04.6.

"Running 4:04.6 is great this early," said Harmatz. "This is going to be an exciting season with these four girls."

Not to outdone, the Los Gatos boys also placed high in a relay in Los Angeles. The foursome of Zack Regner (2:04.1), Matt Bates (2:07.5), Tomas Viramontes (2:07.0) and Jeff Hoeft (2:06.7) ran 8:25.7 to finish second overall in a 39-team field in the 4x800 relay. "This was an outstanding team race," said Harmatz.

Russ Martin finished first in the 2-mile in L.A., running 9:45.5 for the victory.

"That was a great early season time, especially indoors," said the coach. "Russ took over completely in the second mile and won pulling away."

The quartet of Hoeft (54.1), Bates (53.8), Brian Edwards (54.5) and Regner (53.6) finished first in its heat and sixth overall in the 4x400 relay, stopping the clock at 3:37.6.

Lynsey Harris added a seventh in the girls 800.

Los Gatos opened the home season last week, hosting Mitty, Oak Grove, Aptos and Westmont on the LG oval. The Wildcats finished first in both varsity events.

Edwards won both the sprints to lead the Gatos boys to the team win. The speedster was first in the 100 in 11.26 and the 200 in 23.06.

Martin took the 3,200 meters in 9:50.0 with Greg Tolan second, and Bates took the 1,600 meters in 4:27.0.

Hoeft won the 800 in 2:09.1 with Viramontes second and Billy Stanton third, and Viramontes was also third in the 1,600 in 4:36.0 with Regner fourth.

Eric Sturm was second in the triple jump at 37-3 3/4, and Nick Skrabe was third in the discus with a toss of 129-3.

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