Photograph by George Sakkestad
Los Gatos distance star Peter Carter backed up a top 10 finish in Central Park with an individual victory at the Blossom Valley Invitational this past weekend.
By Dick Sparrer
Willie Harmatz knows where his Los Gatos girls' cross-country ranks among the top teams in the Central Coast Section.
Now he's going to find where the Wildcats rank among the best teams in the state.
The Cats will compete in the Stanford Invitational on Oct. 5, and Harmatz is looking forward to seeing what his girls can do--especially after what they did last week.
Gatos ran to back-to-back invitational victories last week, winning the title at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League Invitational and then claiming the crown at the Blossom Valley Invitational. And now the Cats are heading to Stanford.
"This was our best overall team effort this season," Harmatz said after the Blossom Valley victory. "We beat No. 3-ranked Santa Teresa by 24 points."
"This was a great tune-up for Stanford," he added. "Stanford is a statewide invitational, which may show how good we really are. We'll find out where we stand against the best teams from Southern California, Oregon and Nevada."
Harmatz knows where the Cats rank against the teams of the CCS--right among the best.
And they were better than the rest when they ran in the SCVAL Invitational at Central Park in Santa Clara last week.
Amy LaPine finished first overall to lead the Cats to the team title. LaPine covered the 2.3-mile course in 14:54 to post the victory.
"She ran a great race," Harmatz said of LaPine.
Lina Biber-Ferro was third in 14:56, with Jeanne Fishback fifth in 15:07.
Harmatz praised Biber-Ferro for her consistency, and Fishback for her improvement.
Andie Knudsen ended up 21st in 15:49, with Sarah High 26th in 15:54, Laura Sund 40th in 16:24 and Krista Ellsworth 49th in 16:43.
"This was a good team win for us," Harmatz said of the performance. "Our race strategy was perfect."
Stephanie Chavez starred for the Los Gatos junior varsity, finishing first overall in 16:16. Carol Chen was fifth in 16:37.
Los Gatos came right back from the Central Park win with a victory on a 2.7-mile, hilly course in Santa Teresa Park.
Fishback led the Wildcats with a third-place finish in 17:52, and Sarah McAleer was fifth in 18:02.
"This was [Fishback's] best race of her cross country career," Harmatz said. "She ran it perfectly."
But the key to the team victory was the performance of McAleer, who finished fifth in her first race ever.
"She showed wonderful talent," the coach said of McAleer.
Biber-Ferro joined the top 10 with a ninth-place finish in 18:23. High nailed 11th in 18:37 with LaPine 15th in 19:19, Sund 24th in 19:54, Ellsworth 25th in 20:08, Chen 31st in 20:18 and Kristin Hoeft 66th in 24:19.
Knudsen, just a freshman, romped to a fifth in the frosh-soph division in 19:35. Jenny Uhrowczik was 13th in 20:55.
Boys' Cross-country
The two wins posted by the Los Gatos girls may have overshadowed the two seconds recorded by the Los Gatos boys--but certainly not by much.
Los Gatos finished second at the SCVAL Invitational, finishing only behind powerful St. Francis in the team standings. Later in the week, the Cats were second at the Blossom Valley meet, finishing only behind Bellarmine.
St. Francis ran up a low 22 points to win the title in the run through Central Coast, but Los Gatos was a solid second with 82 points. Gunn was a distant third with 104 points.
Peter Carter led the Cats to the runnerup finish by running in the top 10. Carter was eighth in 12:18 to lead the Gatos effort.
Jedd Martin was 11th in 12:26 with Joseph Carter 12th in 12:31, Ben Martin 22nd in 13:01 and Pat Sullivan 29th in 13:12.
Ryan Smith was ninth in 13:27 to lead the Gatos frosh-soph to a team fourth. Joredan Stuhlmiller was 20th in 13:55 with Zack Regner 26th in 14:17 and Phil Smith 30th in 14:22.
David Landers finished sixth in the junior varsity race.
The Wildcats came back with another second at Santa Teresa Park, finishing only behind the Bells in the team standings.
But P. Carter didn't finish behind anyone. The talented Gatos runner won the individual title in the new course record time of 14:14.
"He was absolutely perfect," Gatos boys' coach Steve Barth said of Carter. "He ran one of his best first miles in a cross-country race."
J. Carter was seventh overall in 14:48, with Martin 20th in 15:27, Sullivan 24th in 15:36, Ryan Smith 36th in 16:24, Landers 37th in 16:33 and David Aidi 52nd in 16:52.
In the junior varsity division, Brian Parker was seventh in 16:38 with Chris Lipps ninth in 16:54, Cody Darwin 10th in 16:59 and Greg Parker 13th in 17:22.
P. Smith ran 16:42 to lead all Los Gatos finishers in the boys' frosh-soph division.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 2, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved