Saratoga News Photograph by Skye Dunlap Saratoga's Anne Ricketts ran to a victory and set a new course record in the process at the Saratoga Invitational. Ricketts runs to record at Saratoga Invitational 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. 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. Kelan Champagne led Monta Vista to a team third in the Saratoga event. The Monta Vista senior finished sixth in 10:48,with teammate Jarred Rothman ninth in 10:52. Brian Gross was 14th in 11:09 with Mike McSorley 22nd in 11:28. Kai Yu was the top Lynbrook finisher in the Saratoga meet. The junior finished 20th in 11:23, with freshman Jeff Whitsett 24th in 11:31 and senior Ryan Deal 25th in 11:32. 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. 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. Kevin Pering was Lynbrook's top finisher. Pering, a sophomore, was 11th in 11:59, with Michael Jensen 13th in 12:03. Earlier that week, the Saratoga boys ran to a team title at the 28th annual Artichoke Invitational at Half Moon Bay. Daniels was fourth in 11:58, with Shoor fifth in 11:59 to lead the Falcons to the title. The Falcons finished with 100 points to win it. Host Half Moon Bay was second at 107. Following Daniels and Shoor to the finish line were teammates Beyers (26th in 12:49), Anderson (30th in 12:55) and Tomine (35th in 13:02). Ricketts starred for the Saratoga girls, finishing fifth in 19:27 on a 5,000-meter course. "She ran another big race," said Falcons coach Marshall Clark. "She was the fourth fastest among all CCS runners [Divisions I-IV]." Wang was 10th in 16:30, with Carol Liu 14th in 16:47 to lead the Saratoga girls frosh-soph squad to a team second behind Bret Harte. Nichola Rooke was 20th in 17:18 with Lindsey Moore 23rd in 17:25. David Law was seventh in 13:22, with Richard Law ninth in 13:36 as the Saratoga freshman boys won a team championship. The Falcons finished with 75 points, and Half Moon Bay was second with 101. Gardner was 13th in 13:47, with Brett Stanger 17th in 13:57 and Justin Zebb 29th in 14:51. Alejandro was 15th in 13:47 in the boys sophomore race. Lui was 26th in 14:10 to help the Falcons to a team fourth. In the boys junior varsity race, David Yin was eighth in 14:05, with Higgins 11th in 14:10. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, October 21, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.