Saratoga News

Sports

Jacobs nails 20th at state meet

By Dick Sparrer

Brad Jacobs was running alone at the state cross country meet at Fresno's Woodward Park last Saturday.

Oh, he had company on the drive from Saratoga to Fresno and back home again. The Falcons had qualified as a team for the girls Division III event. But when it came time for the starting gun in the boys Division III final, Jacobs was the lone Saratogan to toe the starting line.

But the loneliness didn't seem to bother the senior one bit.

Jacobs capped a super senior season with a top 20 finish in the state meet. He covered the 3.1-mile course in 16:04 to finish 20th, ending up just three seconds out of the top 15 and only five seconds behind the 13th-place finisher.

Jacobs finished sixth among Central Coast Section runners in the division. Willow Glen's Mohamed Abdalla was first in 15:26 with his teammate, Marcos Corona, fourth in 15:40. Gambileg Bor of Jefferson was seventh in 15:48 with Lance Wolfsmith of Sobrato ninth in 15:49 and Matt Snyder of St. Ignatius 11th in 15:50.

The Saratoga girls, meanwhile, finished 15th in the state meet with 356 points. It was sophomore Katie Nast leading the way for the Falcons with a 52nd-place finish in 19:44. Nast was the seventh CCS finisher in the division.

Sophomores Amanda Speedy (101st in 20:23) and Kelly Lamble (104th in 20:26), freshman Karen Wai (105th in 20:26) and junior Katrin Cooper (106th in 20:30) finished in a pack to round out the top five for Saratoga.

Freshmen Christine La (131st in 21:01) and Sophia Cooper (137th in 21:06) also gained state experience by running for the Falcons.

The performance had to please Saratoga coach Peter Jordan, who will welcome back all seven of Saratoga's female runners next fall.