Saratoga News

0719 | Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Sports

Falcons dominant in El Camino meet

By Dick Sparrer

The boys and girls of the Saratoga track and field teams must have felt pretty comfortable running on their home track last Wednesday afternoon, and because of it they made the rest of the teams in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League really rather uncomfortable.

The Falcons played host to the El Camino Division finals on May 2, and they were acting like they owned the place as they competed for spots in the SCVAL Qualifier meet coming up May 11 at Los Gatos.

The Saratoga girls dominated the competition, outrunning the field in both the varsity and junior varsity divisions. Rachel Sabes, Nicole Sabes, Katie Nast and Kiersten Dolbec each won events as the 'Toga varsity ran up 116 team points to finish well ahead of runner-up Mountain View (100). The junior varsity finished with 161 points to Mountain View's 119.5.

The Saratoga boys varsity wasn't bad either. The Falcons finished with 63.5 points to finish third behind Mountain View (156.5) and Wilcox (108) with a couple of individual champions--Brad Jacobs and Gibran Meza.

The Sabes sisters were big scorers on the track for the Saratoga girls, each one of the juniors winning an individual event and placing in another.

Nicole Sabes was first in the 800-meter run in 2:25.90 with freshman Christina La fourth in 2:31.34 and junior Katrin Cooper eighth in 2:35.85, and she was second in the 100 in 13.18 with freshman Sarah Guy third in 13.26 and sophomore Alana Ledbetter fourth in 13.39.

Rachel Sabes took the 400 in 1:01.21 with sophomore Claire Marsh third in 1:02.17 and senior Madeline Block seventh in 1:04.30, and she was fourth in the 200 in 28.25 behind teammate Guy, who was second in 27.11.

The Falcons also won both relays at the division meet, taking the 4x100 in 51.69 and the 4x400 in 4:11.78.

Nast, a sophomore, rambled to a victory in the 3,200-meter run in 11:37.55 with freshman Sophia Cooper eighth in 12:58.86 and senior Megan Finley ninth in 13:08.27.

Rounding out the list of Saratoga winners in the meet was Dolbec, the talented sophomore high jumper, who won her specialty with a leap of 5-4.

Kelly Lamble and Ashley Cole also rank among the super Saratoga sophomores this year. Lamble was third in the 1,600 in 5:22.35 with freshman Karen Wai sixth in 5:34.46 and soph Amanda Speedy ninth in 5:43.50, and Cole was third in the long jump at 15-6.5 with freshman Sonya Brenner fifth at 15-2.5 and Ledbetter eighth at 14-6.5.

Freshman Tammy Smith was sixth in the 100 hurdles in 17.98; Brenner was seventh in the triple jump at 33-9.5 with Cole ninth at 32-4.5; senior Tamara Schroeder was 10th in the shot put at 27-4.5 with freshman Bailee Yates 11th at 27-0; and soph Stephanie Wong was 12th in the discus at 74-2.

Jacobs, a senior, romped to a win in the 3,200 in 9:53.84 with freshman Nick Olsen ninth in 10:28.88, and he was fourth in the 1,600 in 4:36.05 with sophomores Kian Banks (fifth in 4:36.72) and Alan Menezes (seventh in 4:40.74) close behind.

Meza, a sophomore, flew to a win in the triple jump at 41-11.5 with junior Kian Ghafori sixth at 38-9.5 and sophomore Sina Ouraie eighth at 37-9. Meza was third in the long jump at 19-4 with Ghafori 10th (17-2.5) and Ouraie 11th (17-2).

Alex Lagemann, a Saratoga senior headed to UC-Berkeley on a football scholarship, finished second in the 100 in 11.51 with senior Kourosh Agahdel ninth in 11.87, and Agahdel was fifth in the 200 in 24.54. The two also helped the Falcons to a third in the 4x100 relay in 45.85. Saratoga added a third in the 4x400 relay in 3:38.80.

Junior Walter Lam was third in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 43.37 and seventh in the 110 high hurdles in 18.86, and Banks was fifth in the 800 in 2:06.54 with Menezes seventh (2:09.07) and sophomore Michael Beam ninth (2:09.84).

Junior Cullin Bowen was sixth in the high jump (5-4) with Steven Walker ninth (5-2), Matt Keating was eighth in the shot put (36-0) and Reed Danis was 10th in the discus (92-7).

Like the varsity girls, the Saratoga girls JV team was dominant at the division meet with Jordan Leonard, Katie Marsh, Katie Gasik and Danielle Conway each winning individual events.

Gasik was a double winner for the Falcons, taking the 300 hurdles in 52.98 and the 100-meter dash in 13.7 with Sheeva Hamideh second in 13.95. Gasik was also fifth in the 100 hurdles in 19.17.

Conway led an incredible 1-2-3-4 finish for the Falcons in the 200, winning the event in 28.88 with Marsh second (29.09), Elli Rezaii third (29.72) and Julie Seago fourth (29.84).

Marsh won the 400 in 1:03.79 with Conway second (1:05.09), Seago third (1:05.09), Megha Raghavan fifth (1:06.69) and Rezaii sixth (1:07.61).

The Falcons also raced to wins in the 4x100 relay in 53.13 and the 4x400 relay in 4:24.88.

Leohard cruised to a victory in the 1,600 in 5:53.17 with Lauren McInnis second (5:56.41), and she was second in the 800 in 2:44.26 with McInnis fifth (2:49.91) and Janani Iyer sixth (2:50.11). Iyer was also second in the 3,200 in 13:08.43.

In the field, it was Chelsea Sabella and Sheeva Hamidieh leading the Saratoga effort. Sabella was second in the shot put at 27-5, and Hamidieh was third in both the long jump at 15-1 and the triple jump at 30-4.

In the boys frosh-soph division, Phillip Chen was second in the 100 (12.05) and fifth in the 200 (25.73); Jens Karin was third in the 200 (25.37); Mat Spencer was fifth in the triple jump (33-7.5), sixth in the long jump (18-1.5) and sixth in the 200 (25.83); and Chris Rea was fifth in the 65 hurdles (11.72).

In the De Anza Division finals over at Los Gatos a day later, Lynbrook struggled in the team standings but had a number of individuals come through with solid efforts.

Senior Sameer Thadani sprinted to a win in the 200 and was second in the 100 to lead the Lynbrook boys at the division meet.

Thadani won the 200 in 23.03 with teammate T.J. Olson fourth in 23.72, and he was second in the 100 in 100 in 11.23 with Lynbrook's Matt Kemp fifth in 11.69 and Seyar Kalmoni sixth in 11.76. Olson, a sophomore, was also sixth in the 400 in 53.31, and the Vikings raced to a second in the 4x100 relay in 44.92.

The Vikes were also fourth in the 4x400 relay in 3:33.61, senior Matt Kemp was fifth in the shot put at 48-2.5 and ninth in the discus at 121-3.5, freshman Luca Signore was sixth in the 3,200 in 10:00.66, junior Michael Nguyen was seventh in the 300 hurdles in 45.26 with Michael Liu eighth in 47.99, senior Richard Lam was eighth in the long jump at 19-2.5 and ninth in the triple jump at 37-6 with Austin Webb 10th at 36-0.25 and senior Jason Wang was eighth in the 800 in 2:05.36.

Sophomore Diana Lee starred for Lynbrook in the varsity girls division. Lee flew to a first-place finish in the triple jump at 33-9 and added an eighth in the 300 hurdles in 58.97.

Senior Jessica Tsai was third in the high jump at 4-10 and sixth in the long jump at 15-2.25, junior Marielle Narcisa was eighth in the 100 hurdles in 19.16, senior MayC Huang was eighth in the 800 in 2:28.73 and soph Jenny Tu was ninth in the discus at 79-0. The Vikings were also sixth in the 4x400 relay in 4:36.84.

Sophomore Gene Burinskiy raced to a win in the boys frosh-soph 1,600 in 4:45.59 and was second in the 800 in 2:08.27. He was also sixth in the 3,200 in 10:42.94. Ben Liu added a fifth in the triple jump at 37-5.

Freshman Brianna Tucker was fourth in the girls junior varsity 400 in 1:06.08 and seventh in the 200 in 29.62. Lara Verwer was sixth in the shot put at 23-2.