Who wouldn’t want to spend their Thanksgiving weekend in Fresno?
Fresno? Really?
Well, for high school cross country runners, that’s exactly where they want to be.
It seems that Woodward Park in Fresno is the site of the CIF State Cross Country Championships each fall, and runners will be back on that 3.1-mile course on Nov. 29 to compete in the year’s biggest high school meet.
And in that field will be a number of area teams and individuals who placed high enough at the Central Coast Section finals held last Saturday at Toro Park in Salinas to win state berths.
The girls from Homestead and Monta Vista will join the boys from Lynbrook on the trip to Fresno after outstanding efforts in Salinas last weekend.
Lindsay Allen, Elena Kamas and Hannah Allen led the Homestead girls to a sensational finish in the CCS Division I race, each placing in the top 10 to drive the Mustangs to the team title.
Homestead ran up a low 56 points to edge local rival Monta Vista (62) in the race for the championship.
L. Allen, a sophomore, finished third in 18:20 with freshmen Kamas (fourth in 18:26) and H. Allen (ninth in 18:54) to help the Mustangs secure the crown.
Junior Isabella Muscettola (16th, 19:49), freshman Jillian O’Brien (24th, 20:12), senior Marta Degiuli (29th, 20:25) and junior Nicole Aufricht (41st, 20:52) rounded out the field for Homestead.
The Matadors, behind senior Jenny Xu and her fifth-place run in 18:28, finished hot on the heels of the Mustangs to also earn a place at state. Senior Julia Chang (12th, 19:16), junior Madeleine Yip (13th, 19:16), sophomore Kelly Bishop (14th, 19:40) and junior Anna Hsiao (18th, 19:56) all finished in the top 20 to support Xu’s effort at CCS.
Senior Christina Jennings (22nd, 20:06) and junior Namrata Subramanian (33rd, 20:37) also finished strong for the Mats.
The best finisher from the area in Division I, though, didn’t compete for either the Mustangs or Matadors–it was Cupertino freshman Caroline Gee who ended up second overall in 18:14. Gee, along with winner Gillian Meeks (17:59) of Gunn, earned a berth in the state meet as an individual runner.
Fremont junior J.J. Escalera also finished strong in Division I, running 10th in 19:12 to miss a qualifying spot by only 23 seconds. Junior MacKenzie Cox was 20th in 19:57 for Fremont.
Lynbrook’s Grace Ling will join Gee in Fresno on Nov. 28 after qualifying with a second-place finish in the CCS D-II race. The senior ran 18:27 to wind up second behind Lauren Jacob of Los Altos, who won the event in 18:20.
Angela Liu (17th, 19:40) and Maryam Jawid (26th, 20:16) were other top finishers for the Vikings, who finished sixth as a team in the D-II race. Anna Sussenguth (46th, 21:02), Evita Babin (60th, 21:27), Michelle Lang (69th, 21:51) and Irene Han (78th, 22:30) were other Lynbrook finishers.
The Lynbrook boys fared much better, winning a team slot at state with a second-place finish in the CCS D-II race. Justin Robison was fourth in 15:47 with Revanth Nagurla 10th in 16:12 to lead the Vikings, whose 96 points was second to just Los Gatos (62) in the division.
Kevin Chacko (20th, 16:32), Andy Shen (28th, 16:52), Jim Sussenguth (36th, 17:01), Shawn Silverman (52nd, 17:25) and Chris Cheung (60th, 17:37) rounded out the list of Lynbrook runners.
Monta Vista senior Rohan Choudhury won a state spot by finishing sixth in the individual field in the D-I race. Choudhury ran 16:02 to get his place in the top 10.
Homestead sophomore Max Sawyer (14th, 16:17) and Monta Vista junior Brent Mogensen (15th, 16:19) finished only seconds behind the final individual state qualifier, Carlmont’s Michael Bereket (8th, 16:05). Homestead senior Joey Gronovius was 21st in 16:31 with his junior teammates Daniel Graves (32nd, 16:53), Chris Reed (36th, 16:58) and Adithya Somasundaram (37th, 16:59) and sophomores Matthew Bennett (38th, 17:00) and C.J. Sloan (42nd, 17:05) close behind. The Mustangs ended up fourth in the team standings, just missing a state berth.
