Saratoga News
Sports
Dolbec, Sabes each finish first for Falcons at qualifying meet
By Dick Sparrer
Saratoga's Kiersten Dolbec and Nicole Sabes didn't care much about how many placers in each event at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League qualifying meet advanced to the Central Coast Section semifinals this week.
Neither did Lynbrook's Sameer Thadani.
They all had bigger things in mind when they took part in the SCVAL meet held May 11 at Los Gatos--like winning.
The three each nailed individual victories at the league meet to easily win spots in the CCS semi's that are set for May 19 at San Jose City College. Field events begin at 9:30 a.m. with running events to get under way at 11 a.m.
Dolbec, a Saratoga sophomore, and Sabes, a junior, led the Falcons to a fifth-place team finish at the SCVAL qualifier with their individual titles.
Dolbec soared to a win in the high jump at 5-3 and Sabes breezed to a victory in the 800-meter run in 2:18.51. The two top a list of four Saratoga girls who have qualified for CCS. Saratoga will send three boys to the semifinals.
Thadani, a senior, sprinted to a first-place finish in the 200 meters in 22.83 to lead the Vikings to fifth place in the boys competition. Thadani was also second in the 100 in 11.18 to earn a CCS berth, one of just two Lynbrook boys to qualify.
The top five finishers in each event last Friday won spots in the CCS meet.
Dolbec and Sabes will be joined by teammates Kelly Lamble and Sonya Brenner at CCS. Lamble, a freshman, was second in the 1,600 in 5:12.41 and Brenner, also a freshman, was fifth in the long jump at 15-9.5.
Saratoga's Alex Lagemann, Brad Jacobs and Gibran Meza also finished strong enough in the SCVAL meet to advance to the next round. Jacobs, a senior, was third in the 3,200 in 9:40.05; Lagemann, also a senior, was fourth in the 100 in 11.47; and Meza, a sophomore, was fourth in the triple jump at 41-1.5.
Joining Thadani at CCS will be teammate Eric Surprenat, who also qualified in two events. The junior was fourth in both the 110 high hurdles in 16.08 and the 300 intermediate hurdles in 42.20.
Lynbrook's boys also ran 43.78 to nail second in the 4x100 relay and Saratoga was fifth in 44.99, both teams now advancing to CCS. In the 4x400 relay, though, things didn't got quite as well for the two local squads. The Vikings were sixth in 3:34.89 with the Falcons 11th in 3:37.03.
The Saratoga girls ran to a third in the 4x100 relay in 50.10 to qualify for the CCS semifinals.
The Falcons ran up 45 points to nail fifth place in the girls competition and Lynbrook finished with 36 points for fifth in the boys field. Los Gatos won both team titles at the meet.
Just missing CCS spots in girls action were Saratoga's Ashley Cole and Lynbrook's Jessica Tsai and Diana Lee.
Cole, a sophomore, matched her teammate Brenner's 15-9.5 in the long jump, but was ranked sixth in the finish order.
Tsai, a junior, was sixth in the high jump at 4-11, and Lee, a sophomore, was sixth in the triple jump at 33-3.5.
Saratoga's Brenner was ninth in the triple jump at 32-7, sophomore Alana Ledbetter was ninth in the long jump at 15-3.25, freshman Tammy Smith was ninth in the 100 hurdles in 17.78, soph Alana Ledbetter was ninth in the 100 in 13.11, freshman Sarah Guy was 10th in the 100 in 13.12 and 11th in the 200 in 27.09, sophomore Katie Nast was 10th in the 3,200 in 11:37.91 and freshman Christina La was 14th in the 800 in 2:48.65.
For Lynbrook, freshman Michelle Yee was 11th in the 800 in 2:45.38 with senior MayC Huang 15th in 2:50.16, and Tsai was 13th in the long jump at 15-0.
In boys competition, Saratoga's Alan Menezes and Lynbrook's Scott Blomquist each finished a place behind the qualifying standard.
Menezes, a sophomore, was sixth in the 1,600 in 4:29.26 with teammate Kian Banks, also a sophomore, seventh in 4:31.32.
Blomquist, another soph, ended up sixth in the high jump at 5-8.
For Saratoga, Meza was eighth in the long jump at 19-7, junior Walter Lam was ninth in the 300 hurdles in 43.38, Banks was 11th in the 800 in 2:03.17, senior Kourosh Agahdel was 11th in the 200 in 24.44 and 15th in the 100 in 11.85 and sophomore Sina Ouraie was 13th in the triple jump at 36-8 with junior Kian Ghafori 14th at 36-2.25.
Lynbrook senior Matt Kemp was eighth in the shot put at 47-0, 10th in the 100 in 11.67 and 15th in the discus at 112-4, sophomore T.J. Olson was ninth in the 200 in 23.68, freshman Luca Signore was 10th in the 3,200 in 9:55.79, junior Scott Day was 12th in the shot put at 41-1.5, senior Richard Lam was 12th in the long jump at 18-3 with junior Seyar Kalmoni 14th at 16-9.5, senior Jason Wang was 13th in the 800 in 2:04.22 and Kalmoni was 14th in the 100 in 11.81.
