Follmar runs to victory

at Saratoga Invitational

By Dick Sparrer

It was almost as if the runners on the Saratoga cross-country team had something to prove.

Because when seven teams showed up at the Saratoga campus to participate in the annual Saratoga Invitational, the Falcons all but ran away from the field.

Freshman Alicia Follmar raced to an individual win in the girls varsity division, and senior Will Kraemer led the Saratoga to a team win in the boys varsity race.

Follmar made an impressive home debut with her win in the girls varsity race. The freshman stopped the clock at 12:21.9 to outrun Los Gatos veteran Michelle Beritzhoff to the finish line. The Gatos senior was second in 12:26.1.

Junior Paula McNally finished seventh for the Falcons in 12:59.9 with sophomore Irene Fan 10th in 13:51.1, soph Josie Chan 12th in 13:55.6, soph Jackie Molzon 15th in 14:09.5 and junior Eevi Aura 16th in 14:12.3.

Seniors Joanna Burgess (18th in 14:22.1) and Daphne Lo (23rd in 14:45.8) also ran well for the Falcons.

Kraemer, a transfer who finished ninth in the state in Division IV last year, ran a close second to Karl Skucha of Wilcox in the boys division, leading a pack of Falcons in the top 10.

Skucha covered the two miles in 9:54.3 to win the event, but Kraemer was hot on his heels in second in 9:54.9.

Saratoga's Richard La, David La, Don Prolo and Brett Stanger each finished in the top 10 to help the Falcons easily win the team title.

Richard La was fourth in 10:35.1 with D. La fifth in 10:36.9, Prolo sixth in 10:46.2 and Stanger ninth in 10:51.9. Like Kraemer, all four Falcons are seniors.

Trevor Adams, another senior, was 13th in 11:07.2 for the Falcons, and junior Jacob Osborne was 15th in 11:15.3.

Conway Teng was the top Saratoga finisher in the boys frosh-soph division, running sixth in 11:40. Steven Surrette was 13th in 12:07.4 with Joe Heh 16th in 12:10.8.

In the boys junior varsity race, Max Tam was fourth in 12:31.5 with Josh Smith fifth in 12:38.9 and Trevor Lovoi sixth in 12:40.2 for the Falcons.

Claire Tero starred for the Saratoga girls in the junior varsity division with a fourth-place finish in 14:25.4. Anna Aura was seventh in 14:42.9 with Natalie Ku eighth in 14:51.5 and Anjali Kumar 10th in 15:15.5.

A week earlier, the Falcons ran well at the Firebird Invitational at Fremont.

Kraemer ran third overall in 10:22 to lead the Saratoga boys to a second-place finish behind Wilcox in the team standings.

D. La was 10th in 10:56 with R. La 16th in 11:05, Prolo 17th in 11:08 and Stanger 21st in 11:16.

The Saratoga girls finished third in the team standings behind Milpitas and Piedmont Hills thanks to a sixth-place finish by Follmar. The freshman ran 12:37 to get a spot in the top 10.

Lovoi ran to an individual victory in the boys junior varsity race at Fremont. The senior ran 12:28 to finish first with Smith fifth, Daniel Yang ninth, Tam 10th and Steven Hwang 17th to lead the Falcons to the team title in the division.

Tero was third in 14:52 and A. Aura was fifth in 15:07 to lead the Saratoga girls to a JV title at Fremont. Melissa Martinyak was sixth and Natalie Ku finished ninth.

In the boys frosh-soph race, Teng ran ninth for the Falcons in 11:54.

Vikes off and running

The Lynbrook cross-country team was off and running at the Firebird and Saratoga invitationals.

Senior Jeff Whitsett, a returning all-leaguer, romped to a 10th place finish in 10:54.2 at Saratoga after running 19th at Fremont.

Jonathan Choi, another Lynbrook senior, ended up 17th at Saratoga with Jesse Yeh 31st, Jeyvel Pandian 41st and Michael Chang 42nd.

Francine Lee, a junior all-league returner for the Vikings, led the Lynbrook girls at Saratoga, running sixth in 12:52.7.

Aya Wakabayashi was close behind in eighth in 13:33.3, Kate Bossange was 17th for the Vikings with Evan Smith 19th and Sasoon Kim 20th.

Sophomore Eugene Berson raced Fremont's Austin Sardella to the finish line before ending up second in the boys frosh-soph race. Sardella was second in 10:53.7 with Lynbrook's Berson a close second in 10:59.2.

Whitsett was the top Lynbrook finisher in the boys varsity race at Fremont, running 19th in 11:10.