Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Saratoga's Alex Daniels romped to a first-place finish in the 800 meters to help the Falcons to a dual-meet win over Los Gatos last week.

Allen stars on Gatos track

Saratoga boys win, girls lose

By Dick Sparrer

Chad Allen must like competing on the all-weather track at Los Gatos High School. He must, given the success he's had there over the past couple of weeks.

Allen placed sixth in the 400 meters when competing in the Central Coast Section Top 8 meet at Los Gatos a couple of weekends ago, and last week he returned to the Gatos track to win a couple of events and lead the Falcons to a rousing 105-20 dual-meet victory over the Wildcats in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. He romped to a win in the 400 in 51.5 and he backed that up with a first in the 200 in 23.4 to lead the Falcons to the impressive win over the Cats.

Allen was one of three double winners for the Falcons in the meet. Mike Black and Danny Cheng also won two events apiece to lead Saratoga to the victory. Black took the high jump at 5-8 and he was also first in the 300 intermediate hurdles in 44.5. Cheng was tops in the long jump at 17-0 and the 100 high hurdles in 18.3.

Alex Daniels ran to a victory in the 800 meters in 2:07.8 for the Falcons and Drew Coleman sprinted to a first in the 100 meters in 12.4.

Ryan Sze soared to a win in the triple jump at 33-5, and Saratoga dominated the weight events with Eric Giannella taking the shot put at 37-7 and Matt McKenna winning the discus at 99-4.

Allen had finished sixth in the 400 on the same track just a few days earlier in the CCS Top 8 Meet. Allen covered the one lap in 50.81 to finish sixth, competing against the best in the section.

Daniels was 10th in the 800 meters the same day, running the two laps in 2:01.3.

Anne Ricketts, Laura Birenbaum and Taylor Teerlink also ran well for the Falcons in the CCS Top 8 Meet.

Ricketts was sixth in the 3,200 meters in a personal best 11:36.5, and she was also seventh in the 1,600 meters in 5:24.1. Birenbaum ran a personal best 16.67 to finish second in her heat and seventh overall in the 100 meters. Teerlink was seventh in the 400-meter low hurdles in 49.3 and 11th in the 100 in 17.03.

The Saratoga girls lost a heartbreaker to Los Gatos last week, falling 64-63 in the De Anza Division dual meet.

Ricketts rambled to a first in the 3,200 meters in 11:58 to top a list of seven individual winners for Saratoga in the meet.

Teerlink took the 100 low hurdles in 17.7 and Carla Graziosi raced to a win in the 800 meters in 2:30.8.

Laura Prolo topped the high jump bar at 4-10 for a Saratoga victory and Jennifer Chan was first in the triple jump at 30-2.

Saratoga won both the weight events against Los Gatos. Karen Bencala took the shot put with a heave of 32-112 and Heather Finnecy won the discus with a 106-312 effort.

The Saratoga boys and girls will now advance to the De Anza Division finals coming up May 5 and 7 at De Anza College.

Divers qualify

Two Westmont divers earned spots in the Central Coast Section finals by qualifying at the league finals in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League last week.

Kim Gorski and Cambra Moniz-Edwards each placed in the girls' division at the league meet held last Thursday at Independence to earn a place on the board at the CCS meet set for May 7-9 back at Independence.

Gorski was fourth at the finals with 318.70 points and Moniz-Edwards was fifth with 307.80 points. The cutoff for CCS qualification was 280 points.

Olaf Gonzalez of Westmont placed sixth in the boys' division with 229.90 points.

Golfers win

Junior Mike Vivona fired a five-over-par 77 to lead the Westmont golf team to a 404-419 win over Leland that helped the Warriors clinch the BVAL championship last week.

Sophomore Mark Christensen supported with a solid 78 on the par-72 Riverside Golf Course to help the Warriors to the title. Soph Erik Larson finished at 82 with Phil Miyano shooting an 82 and Chris Carveiro carding an 84.

The Warriors, 13-3 for the year, had beaten Mountain View 207-226 in a nonleague match earlier in the week. Vivona shot a three-over 38 at the Los Altos Country Club with Carveiro shooting a 39. Larson and Christensen each shot 42s and Miyano finished at 46.

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