Los Gatos senior Michelle Beritzhoff finished sixth overall to lead the LG girls to a team fourth at the Central Park Invitational.

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer







Beritzhoff sixth at Central Park

Gatos girls run to fourth-place finish

By Dick Sparrer

It's still pretty early in the 2001 high school cross country season, but you can't blame Saratoga coach Marshall Clark if he's wearing a bit of a smile.

Clark certainly had good reason to smile last Thursday when all of the teams of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League came together for the annual Central Park Invitational in Santa Clara, because the Falcons won it all in the boys varsity division.

Individual champion Will Kraemer led the Falcons to the team title with a close victory over Karl Skucha of Wilcox.

Kraemer covered the 2.3-mile course in 11:38.3 to finish exactly four seconds ahead of Skucha.

The Falcons ran up a low 53 points to win the title. Wilcox was second with 70 points, and Milpitas was a close third with 71 points.

Clay McKell was the top Los Gatos finisher, running 41st in 13:37.3.

Michelle Beritzhoff led the Los Gatos girls to a team fourth by romping to a sixth-place finish in 14:32.8. The Wildcats finished behind Gunn, Milpitas and St. Francis in the Santa Clara run.

Junior Carolyn Penner was 24th overall for Los Gatos, running 15:23.4. Ashley Caldwell was 26th in 15:25.4 with Lynsey Harris 29th in 15:35.2 and Jen Rubnitz 31st in 15:37.8.

Freshman Alicia Follmar was eighth in 14:35.1 to pace the Saratoga girls to a team sixth.

Austin Sardella of Fremont, Jacob Osborne of Saratoga and Tori Tyler of St. Francis were other Central Park winners.

Sardella, a sophomore, ran to a win in the boys frosh-soph division, edging Monta Vista freshman Jason Yow by just over two seconds and Lynbrook soph Eugene Berson by six seconds.

Sardella was first in the division in 12:43.1 with Yow second in 12:45.4 and Berson third in 12:49.9.

Sardella led the Firebirds to the team title in the division with his individual victory.

Sean Bardes was the top Los Gatos finisher, running 14:12.6 for 29th.

Osborne raced to a first-place finish in the boys junior varsity division, but Saratoga had to settle for a second-place finish behind Monta Vista in the team standings.

Osborne won the race in 13:20.4 with Makato Endo of Monta Vista second in 14:00.3.

Nicholas Edwards of Los Gatos was 32nd.

Tyler finished first to lead the St. Francis girls to a team title in the junior varsity division.

Freshman Alexa St. Charles of Los Gatos was 12th in 16:27.8 with fellow LG frosh Alison Lemon 17th in 16:34.8.

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