Running to a second-place finish at the Central Park Invitational is Russ Martin of Los Gatos. Martin helped the Cats win the team title.

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Martin leads Cats to title

By Dick Sparrer

It was a hot day when the cross country teams of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League converged in Santa Clara for the Central Park Invitational last Tuesday... and not just because the mercury was climbing over the 90-degree mark.

Girnay Guangui was hot. So was Heather Hennessy. And so were the girls and boys teams from Los Gatos High School

All of them were running to titles when teams from the De Anza and El Camino divisions combined for a 2.3-mile run that featured all of the teams from the SCVAL.

Santa Clara's Guangui was the hottest of all. The talented senior raced to an individual title in the course record time of 11:25.

Hennessy covered the two-plus miles in 14:23 to finish as the girls winner, and she led the Wildcats to the team title in the process.

The Los Gatos boys were hot, too, putting five runners among the top seven finishers to cruise to a team championship.

Russ Martin finished second in 11:49 with Matt Bates third in 12:00, Zack Regner fourth in 12:03, Tomas Viramontes sixth in 12:06, Jeff Hoeft seventh in 12:15 and Greg Tolan 15th in 12:52 as the Wildcats coasted to the easy win.

"We had a 26-second range from our No. 1 to No. 5, so it was a great team race," said Gatos coach Willie Harmatz. "All of the guys had P.R.s on the course."

Hennessy led the Gatos girls to a title the same day with her win.

"She runs to win," said Harmatz of Hennessy. "She does what it takes to win."

Michelle Beritzhoff was third in 14:43 with Carolyn Penner ninth in 15:19. Kate Leary finished 11th in 15:26 with Lynsey Harris 13th in 15:30 and Merin Clark 14th in 15:31.

"It was a fantastic team race," said the coach. "Our top two ran close, and our pack ran together so perfectly."

A highlight for the Los Gatos girls was beating league rival St. Francis in the meet. The Cats ran up a low 37 points to win the team title with the Lancers second at 49.

"We know we can run with them," said Harmatz. "We needed to be tested."

Theresa Rehder finished second in the girls JV race in 16:10 with Erica Williams third in 16:12 and Jenny Rubnitz 12th in 19:12. Billy Stanton was second in the boys JV division.

In competition last weekend, the Gatos boys finished fifth at the rugged Stanford Invitational, and the girls ran third at Half Moon Bay.

Martin finished a solid ninth in 16:22 and Regner was 12th in 16:36 on the 3.1-mile course at Stanford.

"Nobody runs better than [Martin] in the last two miles," said Harmatz. "He ran a great race. And [Regner] ran his best race this season. He proved he can run against the best in the state."

Viramontes was 41st in 17:10 with Hoeft 51st in 17:21 and Darren Key 79th in 17:52.

Harris finished 12th in 15:48 to lead the Gatos girls to a team third at Half Moon Bay.

"She had a nice kick at the end and it was a fine effort overall," said Harmatz of Harris.

Clark ended up 19th in 16:03 with Leary 22nd in 16:15 and Williams 32nd in 16:49.

Angela McBeath was 15th in the girls junior varsity race with Rubnitz 17th.

Jason Yuki was 23rd in the boys frosh-soph division in 13:55.

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