Los Gatos girls finish 1-2-3 in the 800 meter

By Dick Sparrer

It's easy as one-two-three.

At least, that's the way Los Gatos half-milers made it look when they finished one-two-three in the 800 meters at the West Valley Relays held last weekend at West Valley Community College in Saratoga.

Heather Hennessy, Amy LaPine and Michelle Beritzhoff owned the event when runners took off for the two-lapper on Saturday at West Valley.

Hennessy, a sophomore who had finished first in the event a week earlier at the K-Bell Invitational at Los Gatos, breezed to a victory in 2:20.9.

Hot on her heels was teammate LaPine, who had finished second to Hennessy at the K-Bell. The Gatos senior covered the two-lapper in 2:21.4 to give the Wildcats the top two spots.

But Beritzhoff made it a clean sweep when she raced home in 2:23.8. The freshman finished third in the event a week after running fourth at the K-Bell.

The three also teamed with sophomore Cristen McClenathan to win the 4x400 relay in 4:11.88 the same day. LaPine breezed to a 59.5 split in her 400, and Hennessy ran 60.1.

The 800 sweep and relay win were enough to lead the Los Gatos girls to a team second behind Mt. Pleasant at the West Valley Relays. The Cardinals ran up 49 points to win the team title, with the Wildcats second at 41 and Aptos third at 39.

Other top marks for the Gatos girls included Sarah McAleer's 11:13.7 in the 3000 meters and Anne Farnady's heave of 99-4 in the discus.

Zack Regner was the lone Los Gatos placer in the boys varsity division. The junior distance star was second in the 1500 meters in 4:14.8.

Los Gatos had a big day on Friday, too, with Russ Martin and Jeff Hoeft starring for the Wildcats in the boys frosh-soph division.

Martin ran 9:16.0 to finish first overall in the 3000 meters, with teammate Matt Bates third in 9:30.5. Tomas Viramontes ran a strong 9:50.6, and Greg Tolan finished well at 10:20.2.

Hoeft romped to a win in the 800 meters in 2:04.4 for the Wildcats.

Martin and Hoeft combined with Bates and John Slate for a first in the distance medley relay in 11:02.8.

Seung Lee was second in the 65-meter high hurdles in 10.18 for the Wildcats.

In dual meet action earlier in the week, Los Gatos dropped a couple of varsity decisions to Milpitas. The Gatos girls lost 72-55 to the Trojans despite individual victories by LaPine, Beritzhoff and Emily King.

LaPine was first in the 400 meters in 1:01.77, and Beritzhoff took the 800 in 2:29.13. LaPine later ran third in the 200 in 28.47.

King soared to a first in the long jump at 15-21Ž2 with teammate McClenathan second at 13-7.

Farnady was second in both the discus at 96-11 and the shot put at 29-5, and Racine Lewin was second in the 100 hurdles in 19.29 and third in the 300 hurdles in 56.38.

Seconds also went to Emily Obermeir in the high jump at 4-10, Kim Christiansen in the triple jump at 28-111Ž2 and Kristina Roskos in the 300 hurdles in 55.67, and thirds were picked up by Amie Salfen in the 100 in 13.69 and Stacey Fisher in the high jump at 4-8.

Regner was a double winner, and Lee sprinted to a win in the 110 high hurdles, but the Los Gatos varsity lost 74-54 to Milpitas.

Regner cruised to a win in the two-mile in 11:29 and was first in the mile in 4:42.35, with Bates second in 4:53.60 and Martin third in 4:54.40.

Lee won the 110 high in 17.97. He was also third in the 100 meters in 11.84.

Nick Skrabe was second in the shot put at 41-2, and Jerry Yuhara was second in the discus at 117-9, with Rick Esparza third at 115-0.

Eric Sturm was second in the long jump at 18-11Ž2 and third in the triple jump at 36-101Ž2, and Eric Medefesser was second in the high jump at 5-8, with Ryan Smith third at 5-8.

Darren Key won a pair of events to lead the Los Gatos boys to a 72-56 frosh-soph win over Milpitas.

Key took the mile in 5:06.15 and he was first in the 8900 in 2:20.49.

Nick McAlpine was first in the shot put at 39-3, Viramontes won the two-mile in 11:11, Jon Yip took the long jump at 15-2, Matt Stabile won the high jump at 4-10, and Kenny Leong took the 300 intermediate hurdles in 53:02.

Erin Dudley and Katie Zuparko were each double winners for the Los Gatos girls junior varsity team that posted an 81-40 win over Milpitas.

Dudley took the shot put at 26-41Ž4 and the discus at 81-7, and Zuparko was tops in the 100 at 14:30 and the 200 at 30.67.

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