The Rams won the boys and girls championships in the West Valley Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League last spring and had many talented tracksters returning this season.

But Willow Glen would have to move up to the Santa Teresa Division for the '03 campaign, begging the question, "Could the Rams contend for the championships in the tougher division?"

The answer is simple—yes!

Willow Glen rolled through the Santa Teresa dual meet season with 6-0 records in boys and girls competition, then backed up those performances with solid showings at the league finals to clinch division championships.

The title is the second straight for the Willow Glen boys and the third in a row for the Willow Glen girls.

"It was a very exciting season because we moved up to the Santa Teresa Division with the expectation to be competitive," said girls head coach Rich Mendez, "and we ended up exceeding expectations by winning double championships for the second straight year."

The boys maintained their league dominance by finishing first at the division meet last week. The Rams ran up 101 points to finish five points ahead of Westmont and Santa Teresa, who shared second at the finals with 96 points apiece.

"The boys team was very persistent, fighting back to challenge a very strong Westmont team," said Willow Glen head coach John Owens of his squad's showing at the division meet. "We ended up winning league finals and the league championship with a well-balanced team, and boosted by several outstanding individual performances."

The girls, on the other hand, finished second to Leigh at the league meet, but won the crown by virtue on their regular season championship and strong showing at the finals.

Leigh won the division meet with 106 points. Willow Glen was a close second at 95, with Prospect at distant third at 72.

"A real nice part about winning back-to-back team championships for both the boys and girls teams is the tremendous pride and team camaraderie demonstrated by the athletes who have worked very hard this season to be competitive at the higher Santa Teresa Division," said distance coach Victor Santamaria.

Cody Fickes, Ngoan Phan and Christina Diaz won individual titles to spearhead the Willow Glen showing at the finals. They will now lead a strong contingent of Rams on the BVAL finals May 14 at Independence. The top five placers in each event at the division meet advance to the BVAL meet.

Fickes will be a busy guy on Thursday because he qualifies for two events after his two big wins at the Santa Teresa BVAL finals. The junior hurdler was first in the 110 high hurdles in 17.2 with teammate Mike Bedolla fourth, and he was also first in the 300 hurdles in 44.9.

Phan, a junior, rambled to a win in the 3,200 meters in 10:08. Teammates Gilbert Rosales (third in 10:34) and Luis Varela (sixth in 10:52) also placed in the event. Varela just missed qualifying for BVAL in the 3,200 but he did win a place in the league meet by finishing fourth in the 800 in 2:06 and fifth in the 1,600 in 4:42.

Nate Oxsen also qualified in two events by finishing third in the discus at 141-5 and third in the shot put at 41-5. Vince Lopez finished fifth in the discus at 128-1 and Amir Faraj-Perry was fifth in the shot at 39-3.

Chris Espinosa is another double qualifier. He was fourth in the 400 in 56.10 and fourth in the 200 in 23.98 with teammate Gilbert Lozoya fifth in 24.2.

Trung Nguyen finished fifth in the long jump at 19-8 and Alex Leatherman was fifth in the high jump at 5-4.

The Rams also qualified for league in both relays, finishing second in the 4x100 in 46.2 and third in the mile relay in 3:51.

Diaz starred for the Willow Glen girls at the finals. The sophomore rolled to a win in the 1,600 meters in 5:29 and she was also first in the 800 in 2:30 with freshman Angela Pizzella second in 2:33. Diaz added a second in the 3,200 in 12:30.

Erica Preiman and Angelica Montelongo supported Diaz's effort by qualifying in two events each. Preiman, a junior, was second in the high jump at 4-4 and third in the 110 hurdles in 17.76, and Montelongo, a sophomore, was second in the shot put at 30-9 and third in the discus with a toss of 100-0.

Senior Edna Sison was third in the 400 in 1:06.47, and freshman Angela Pizzella was third in the 200 in 27.03. The Rams also qualified in both relays, finishing second in the mile relay in 4:28 and fourth in the 4x100 in 55.17.

"The athletes really showed that they can perform under pressure and came through with the team championship," said Owens.


Rams are champs

It's official—the Willow Glen badminton has won the championship in the 2003 season in the West Valley Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.

Actually, it was official even before the final week of the regular season. But the Rams wrapped up the year in championship fashion with a 14-1 win over second-place James Lick and a 12-3 win over Leigh to wind up 16-0 in league play.

The Rams finished the home season with the win over Lick, honoring the squad's seniors on the night of the victory. Tue Tran, boys No. 1 singles, and Nancy Vu, girls No. 1 singles, were each winners in the match and they were honored along with seniors Hang Nguyen, Judy Mendez, Cole Peterson, Minh Nguyen, Bao Pham, De Phan, Tin Mai and Huasheng Chen.

Coach Nancy Williams' crew made it a clean sweep in the division with the win over Leigh to close out the week.

Willow Glen now moves on to the league championship tournament. As league champs, the Rams will send eight entrants to the finals.