Los Gatos Weekly-Times

At right, Los Gatos distance stars Lina Biber-Ferro and Marcia Wallis each finished in the top 10 to help the Wildcats win their 15th league cross-country championship in the last 16 years. Gatos freshman Russ Martin (left) led the Wildcats to the team championship at the league finals. Martin finished second overall, running 16:12 on the 2.95-mile course.

Wildcats run to titles

Los Gatos teams win league, Sarah High and Russ Martin are top finishers

By Dick Sparrer

Sarah High hadn't won a race in 312 years of running for the track and cross-country teams at Los Gatos.

She was always competitive, and she was always among the leaders. She just never won.

But she's won a race now for the Wildcats. And she couldn't have picked a better time for it.

High raced to a victory at the league championships, and she did it in impressive fashion. She bettered her previous best time on the three-mile Crystal Springs course by 28 seconds, and her 19:17 effort ranks her ninth on the Los Gatos all-time list.

What's more, her individual victory helped Los Gatos to the team title at the league finals, one of four team championships for the Wildcats on that day.

The Los Gatos girls ran to varsity and junior varsity titles at the league meet, and the Los Gatos boys rambled to varsity and frosh-soph championships.

The Gatos boys and girls varsity teams were scheduled to run in the Central Coast Section finals last weekend, but rain washed out the meet. The runners will return to the Crystal Springs in Belmont on Nov. 18 to begin CCS championship events at noon.

High won the girls' varsity individual crown, and Mika Clark was the girls' jv winner. Freshman Jeff Hoeft took the boys' frosh-soph title, and freshman Russ Martin was second in the boys' varsity division.

High led the Gatos girls to their 15th league championship in the last 16 years.

"We followed the race strategy perfectly," said girls' coach Willie Harmatz. "All of [the girls] thought of the team first in this race, and all of them did the job."

Los Gatos rolled up a low 31 points to win the league title, with St. Francis second at 51.

High led the Gatos effort with her first-place finish overall.

"When she left [Paula Dunlap of Cupertino] at the 112 mile mark, [Dunlap] couldn't go with her," said Harmatz. "She did a great job of running off her until that point."

Lina Biber-Ferro, the league champ in 1995 and a fourth-place finisher last year, ended up third in 20:05, with Marcia Wallis seventh in 20:50, Amy LaPine ninth in 20:55, Sarah McAleer 11th in 21:05 and Laura Sund 21st in 22:24.

Clark starred for the Cats in the junior varsity race, finishing first in 21:58 to lead Gatos to the team title. The Wildcats ran up a low 21 points to outrun second place St. Francis (34).

Theresa Rehder was second in 22:12, with Morgan Womack third in 22:20, Liz Pellegrin seventh in 22:44 and Andie Knudsen eighth in 22:49.

The championship was the eighth in the last 10 years for the Los Gatos girls.

Martin led the Los Gatos boys' varsity to its 12th league championship in the last 11 years by finishing second in 16:12.

"He ran a great race, exactly according to our plan," said Gatos coach Steve Barth.

The Wildcats finished well ahead of runner-up Saratoga in the race for the team title. Gatos ended up with a low 28 points to 69 for the Falcons.

"We accomplished our first goal," Barth said. "We're league champions, and we won by a convincing margin with five of the top 10 finishers."

Martin was second overall, with junior Jedd Martin fourth in 16:22, junior Joseph Carter fifth in 16:31, junior Zack Regner seventh in 17:04, Pat Sullivan 10th in 17:29, Cody Darwin 13th in 17:35 and Ryan Smith 21st in 18:35.

The Los Gatos frosh-soph matched the varsity's showing by winning a team title over second-place Saratoga. The Cats finished with 32 points to 38 for 'Toga.

Hoeft romped to an individual title for the Wildcats, running 16:49. Matt Bates, another freshman, finished in photo-finish at 16:49 but ended up second overall.

Greg Tolan was seventh in 18:36, with Darren Key 10th in 19:06 and Phil Smith 13th in 19:25.

Los Gatos finished second in the boys' junior varsity division to Saratoga. The Falcons ended with 28 points to 36 for the Cats. Brian Parker was the first Gatos finisher in 17:36, with Morgan Bennett next at 17:58.

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