By Dick Sparrer
You can't beat the feeling.
Los Gatos cross-country coach Willie Harmatz knows it well--he's been there before.
And now his Gatos girls know it, too--the feeling of winning a Central Coast Section championship.
"It's a great feeling," Harmatz said after the Wildcats clinched the CCS Division III championship last weekend.
The Gatos girls ran up a low 35 points to win the team title, finishing well ahead of second-place Aptos (71) and third-place St. Francis (105).
"The overall effort was truly outstanding," Harmatz said. "We peaked just right. Everyone just ran an outstanding race."
The CCS title qualified Los Gatos for a trip to the state meet in Fresno on Nov. 30.
Jedd Martin will join the Gatos girls for the trip to state. Martin finished sixth at CCS to qualify as an individual.
The Los Gatos boys finished a disappointing fifth in the CCS team standings with the Carter brothers, Joseph and Peter Carter, both hampered by nagging illness.
"It was just a bit of bad luck," Gatos coach Steve Barth said. "What can I say? Normal circumstances (with the Carters healthy) would have made a difference of 80 points."
Serra won the team title with 94 points. Westmont was second at 100 with Leland third (132), Watsonville fourth (140) and Los Gatos fifth (163).
So the spotlight focused firmly on the Los Gatos girls, and they deserved every bit of it.
Sophomore Sarah McAleer topped a list of four Wildcats in the top 10 and five in the top 20 at the CCS finals.
McAleer was fourth in 18:56 on the 3.0-mile course. She's just the fifth girl in Los Gatos history to break the 19-minute mark on the course.
"When she took off during the second mile, she was a different person," Harmatz said of McAleer. "It was fantastic."
Lina Biber-Ferro finished seventh in 19:49, with Jeanne Fishback eighth in 19:53 and Sarah High ninth in 19:58.
Amy LaPine rounded out the Gatos top five by finishing 16th in 20:21. Laura Sund was 31st in 21:33, and Andie Knudsen was 35th in 21:46.
The CCS championship was the seventh for a Los Gatos girls' cross-country team and the 10th for the school. The Gatos boys and girls each won CCS titles in 1988 and 1992, and the Gatos boys won alone in 1980. The Los Gatos girls added CCS titles in 1983, '84, '85, '91 and now in 1996.
"We won by the widest margin in all of our 10 section championships," Harmatz said. "And it's the first time in Los Gatos history that we had four runners in the CCS top nine."
Martin led the effort for Los Gatos in the boys' division. He finished sixth overall in 16:05 to win his trip to the state meet.
"He did a great job of following his race plan," Barth said of Martin. "He stayed focused and was aggressive throughout the race."
Ben Martin ran strong to finish 15th in 16:29, but missed a trip to state.
J. Carter ended a disappointing 40th in 16:57, and P. Carter was 55th in 17:16. Both times were more than a minute below their previous bests on the course.
It was a disappointing finish for each of the talented runners, but especially for Peter Carter. The senior has starred for the Gatos cross country team for the past four years, and it was a tough way to end his prep career.
Ryan Smith ended up 58th in 17:21 with David Landers 64th in 17:26 and Pat Sullivan 69th in 17:29.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, November 20, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved