Los Gatos Weekly-Times Los Gatos girls run to a win at Saratoga By Dick Sparrer Anne Ricketts was running alone. Well, not exactly. There were 61 other girls running in the Saratoga Invitational held recently on the local high school campus. But when the girls headed to the finish line in the two-mile event, Ricketts was alone, winning the event going away and setting a new course record in the process. Ricketts covered the two miles in 11:56.8 to finish more than half a minute ahead of her nearest rival, Amy LaPine of Los Gatos. LaPine was a distant second in 12:33, but still finished strong enough to lead the Wildcats to the team championship in the girls division. LaPine, Marcia Wallis, Sarah McAleer and Heather Hennessy each finished in the top 10 to pace Gatos to the team title. The Wildcats ran up a low 44 points to win the girls crown, with Saratoga second at 53. "I was very happy to see Amy, Marcia, Sarah and Heather all in the same race," said Gatos coach Willie Harmatz. "All of them ran well." Because of injuries, illness and various other reasons, the Wildcats had been unable to run as a group to this point in the season, but they put it all together at Saratoga. LaPine was second, with Wallis fifth in 13:06, McAleer seventh in 13:12 and Hennessy ninth in 13:30. Lauren Wooley joined her teammates in the top 20, finishing 19th in 14:21, and Theresa Fuquay was 32nd in 14:39. But while Gatos was running away with the girls' team title, Ricketts was running off with the girls individual crown in record time. Ricketts' time was the best ever on the Saratoga course, and she led the Falcons to a team second with her outstanding performance. Sophomore Elissa Dines of Saratoga joined Ricketts in the top 10 with a 10th-place finish in 13:38. Laura Lin, another sophomore, was 12th for the Falcons in 13:51, with Jenny Yoo 14th in 13:58, MiMi Choi 16th in 14:11, Dernie Wang 18th in 14:19 and Stephanie Chang 19th in 14:21. In the boys division, Girmay Guangul of Santa Clara finished 17 seconds ahead of his nearest rival to finish first and set a course record of 10:01.9. But it was Saratoga racing to the team championship, with Alex Daniels leading the way for the Falcons. Daniels ended up second overall at 10:19 to spark Saratoga to the team title. Alex Shoor was fourth in 10:39, with Luke Anderson eighth in 10:51, Jeff Beyers 11th in 10:57, Jake Christopherson 13th in 11:05 and Nobuaki Tomine 16th in 11:16. Los Gatos sent an incomplete boys varsity team to Saratoga, but senior Jedd Martin performed well as an individual for the Wildcats. Martin was fifth overall in 10:44. Los Gatos freshman Brent Bauman was the boys junior varsity winner on the day. Bauman covered the course in 11:25 to finish first overall for the Wildcats. Jason Yuki was fifth in 11:49, with Trevor Adams 21st in 12:16 and Jared Baker 23rd in 12:20 as the Los Gatos boys finished third in the junior varsity field. Saratoga nailed second place as a team, led by Michael Teng. The 'Toga sophomore was third overall in 11:46 with Jesse Alejandro seventh in 11:55, Justin Gardner ninth in 11:56, Devon Lui 12th in 12:02 and Kevin Higgins 15th in 12:06. Later the same week, Los Gatos finished strong in all divisions at the rugged Crystal Springs Invitational. Russ Martin led the Gatos boys to a team third, and freshman Kate Leary led the girls to a team fourth in the tough competition. Martin's time was 15:54 on the three-mile course. Matt Bates finished eighth in 16:15, with Jeff Hoeft 15th in 16:29, Zach Regner 18th in 16:38 and Pat Sullivan 23rd in 16:57. Bellarmine ran up a low 47 points to win the team title, with Jesuit second (50) and Los Gatos third (68). Leary finished 38th in 21:09 to help the Los Gatos girls finish fourth behind St. Ignatius, Sacred Heart and Vacaville. Ally Chavez was 40th in 21:12, with Lynsey Harris 43rd in 21:20, Theresa Rehder 48th in 21:27 and Kim Pugh 68th in 22:22. Tomas Viramontes was first overall in 16:58 to lead the Los Gatos boys' junior varsity to a team second behind Bellarmine. Greg Tolan was fifth in 17:35, with Darren Key seventh in 17:44, Tim Chen 10th in 18:04, Tim Odell 15th in 18:25 and Caleb Hayashi 17th in 18:35. Mike Rossassler ran 18:38 to finish 40th in the boys' sophomore race. Liz Pellegrin was 21st in 23:49, with Morgan Womack 22nd in 23:49 to lead the Los Gatos girls to a 15th-place finish in the junior varsity division. Gina Strayer was 29th in 24:32, with Briana Chenevey 47th in 25:35. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 21, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.