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Grelli runs to win for Panthers
Diaz, Phan both win at Ram Invitational
By Dick Sparrer
Melissa Grelli ran alone down the final stretch to the finish line. But her individual victory wasn't enough to lead Presentation to a team win over Mitty in the opening round of dual meet competition in the rugged Mount Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.
Grelli covered the 2.95-mile course at Montgomery Park in 19:29 to finish 13 seconds ahead of runner-up McKayla Plank of Mitty.
But Grelli's solid performance couldn't offset a strong team showing by Mitty. The Monarchs put five runners in the top 10 to claim a tight 24-31 win over the Panthers.
Still, it was far from a bad showing for Presentation. The Panthers put five runners in the top 15 to romp past Leland (26-31) and James Lick (15-50) to pick up two team wins on the day.
Grelli was first overall with Mandy Williams sixth in 23:01, Adrianna Morici ninth in 23:40, Laleh Jalilian 12th in 24:32 and Morgan Brown 14th in 25:15.
Nicole Buller was close behind in 16th in 25:32 with Morgan Davies 17th in 25:46.
It was a similar showing for the Panthers in the junior varsity division. Presentation ran past Leland 19-39 and Lick 17-41, but lost 25-31 to Mitty.
Sara Siemer was first overall for the Panthers in 25:05 with Natalie Garcia fourth in 26:23, Ellen Bailey 11th in 27:22, Nicole Chavez 13th in 27:40 and Alexandra Gerr-Schultz 18th in 28:16.
Grelli fourth at Stanford
Presentation's Grelli came back from the win in the league meet to finish fourth overall at the prestigious Stanford Invitational held last weekend in Palo Alto.
Grelli covered the 5,000 meters in 19:24 to nail a fourth-place finish in Division III competition.
Rams star at Westmoor
Cristina Diaz, Ngoan Phan and Vanessa James each came through with standout performances for the Willow Glen cross country team at the 65-school Ram Invitational held last Saturday at Westmoor High School in Daly City.
Diaz, a freshman, covered the 2.4-mile course in 15:56 to win the girls frosh-soph division, and Phan ran 13:09 to take the boys sophomore race. James ended up second in the girls junior varsity division in 17:22, despite taking a wrong turn with a mile to go.
Diaz posted the fourth fastest frosh-soph time in the 20-year history of the Ram Invitational on her way to victory.
Diaz led the race from the beginning until she was passed with a mile to go. She fell behind by 20 yards before turning it on to regain the lead with 200 yards remaining and romped to the victory.
"She showed great strength and speed, hanging in there to pass the challenger with 200 yards to go and sprinting in to capture the win," said Willow Glen coach Victor Santamaria. He indicated that Diaz's time is a new Willow Glen school record on the Westmoor course.
Freshman Kelsey Siebert finished eighth in the division in 17:15.
Phan dominated the field in the boys sophomore race, leading from the gun to the finish line. Like Diaz, Phan set a new school record on the course, and his time is the third fastest ever run by a sophomore in the race.
James, a senior, led the girls JV race much of the way, but a wrong turn with a mile to run pushed her back in the field.
"[She] remained very competitive and showed great strength by catching those runners and regaining the lead," Santamaria said. "She was only a few feet away from winning but got outkicked at the tape."
Senior Andrea Miller ended up eighth in the same division to take home a medal.
Rams run to wins
Willow Glen opened the BVAL season last week by running to wins over Yerba Buena and San Jose in both boys and girls West Valley Division action.
Phan snapped the old record of 18:03 on the Montgomery Hill 3.1-mile course by running 17:41 to finish first overall and lead the Rams to wins over San Jose (23-36) and YB (15-45).
Kamachi Mbawa finished eighth in 19:32, Luis Varela was ninth in 19:55, Augie Adams was 15th in 20:24, George Bryan was 16th in 20:32, Rich Folk was 17th in 20:42, Alex Leatherman was 18th in 20:43 and Abraham Gutierrez was 19th in 20:44. Adams is a freshman, and the others are all juniors.
Diaz finished first in the school record time of 22:05 to lead the Willow Glen girls to 15-45 wins over both the Bulldogs and Warriors.
James was second in 23:38 with Siebert third in 24:46, sophomore Eleni Mastorakos fourth in 25:05, junior Jennifer Cook fifth in 25:10 and Miller seventh in 25:53.
"The Lady Rams looked extremely strong out there," Santamaria said. "It was a real nice win for the girls, but it was definitely unexpected for them to sweep the top five places and six of the top seven places. I don't know when the last time a Willow Glen girls team has done this in league competition."
Sophomore Craig Doleshel was first in 21:32 to lead the Willow Glen boys to frosh-soph wins over both YB and SJ. Soph Diego Alvarado was second in 21:32.5 with sophomore Anthony Howell third in 21:45 and freshmen David Wells fourth in 21:48, Jose Cervantes sixth in 22:32 and Brian Eicher eighth in 24:15.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
