Saratoga News

Photo by George Sakkestad

Saratoga's Whittney Dotzler romped to a sixth-place finish in the girls' division at Fremont's Firebird Invitational last week.

Falcons run to Firebird title

Saratoga's Dotzler makes it to girls' top 10

By Dick Sparrer

Homestead couldn't field complete teams to compete in the annual Firebird Invitational last week at Fremont.

But that didn't make the Mustangs any less competitive in the 2.1-mile cross-country meet held on the Sunnyvale campus.

Matt Hovik and Darius Siddiqui finished among the top five boy runners, and Pamela Johnson ended up in the girls' top 10 to give the Mustangs a solid showing, even if they didn't figure among the team leaders.

That wasn't a problem for the Saratoga and Monta Vista cross-country teams. The Falcons and Matadors didn't just finish among the leaders, they were the leaders when the team results were polled at Fremont.

Saratoga ran to the boys' title and Monta Vista won the girls' championship at the invitational meet.

The Falcons put five runners among the top 15 finishers to easily win the boys' crown with 48 points. Los Altos was second at 58, with Monta Vista third at 105. Wilcox (124) ran fourth, Milpitas (181) fifth, Lynbrook (196) sixth, host Fremont (204) seventh and Westmont (234) eighth.

Brett Pahler finished sixth overall in 10:54.4 to lead the Saratoga effort. Alex Daniels was seventh in 11:06, with Andrew Sun eighth in 11:08, Michael Smith 13th in 11:17.3 and Drew Copeland 14th in 11:18.7.

Hovik led the Homestead effort with a third-place finish in 10:45, and Siddiqui was fourth in 10:51 for the Mustangs.

Monta Vista dominated the girls' race, putting four runners in the top 14 to clinch the team title. The Matadors ran up 61 points to finish first, with Milpitas second at 73 and Prospect third at 78.

Los Altos (129) ran fourth, Saratoga (180) fifth, Mountain View (200) sixth, Santa Clara (203) seventh, Fremont (218) eighth and Lynbrook (238) ninth.

Lauren Adams won the girls' title for the Matadors, covering the 2.1-mile distance in 12:50 to finish six seconds ahead of her nearest rival.

Whittney Dotzler was the top Saratoga finisher in the girls' division, running 13:23 to claim sixth. Jenny Yoo was 13th for the Falcons in 13:44.9, with Laura Prolo 20th in 14:10.5.

Homestead's Johnson came home in seventh, clocking in at 13:28 for the Mustangs.

Sueh-Han Liew of Fremont joined the girls' top 15, finishing 15th overall in 13:47.

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