Jacobs, Douglas lead Saratoga to team title at Lynbrook meet
By Kevin Sparrer
It was 2.1 miles worth of great competition. Saratoga and Monta Vista battled hard against each other in the Lynbrook Invitational on Oct. 27, and in the end it was the Saratoga boys coming out on top.

The Falcons ran up a low 61 points to win the team title with the Matadors hot on their heels with 62 points.

Monta Vista junior Simon Bill finished the race second overall in 10:41.4, while Saratoga's first runner, junior Brad Jacobs, came in less than 10 seconds later in fourth at 10:50.4.

The Falcon's second finisher, senior Ken Douglas, was sixth overall in 10:58 before Monta Vista's second runner, sophomore Thomas Bill, finished in 11:06.6.

Monta Vista brought in its next finisher before Saratoga. Junior Harold Pan finished 14th in 11:19.3 with Saratoga freshman Alan Menezes 15th in 11:21.8.

Saratoga's fourth runner was senior Henry Barmeier who was 17th in 11:23 and right in front of Monta Vista sophomore Yu Hsiao, 18th in 11:23.8.

Saratoga clinched the win when senior Scott Surrette came in 19th in 11:28 to finish out the scoring for the Falcons.

Monta Vista senior Abhi Vaishnav finished less than a second later in 20th in 11:28.6.

Fremont finished in fifth place as a team, but it was senior Kevin Schenider finishing first overall in the race. The speedy Firebird ran 10:24.1, 15 seconds ahead of the next closest runner.

Junior Jason Wang led the pack for Lynbrook, finishing 11th in 11:16.2. Junior Paul Lee was 24th in 11:36.2, junior Michael Liu was 29th in 11:43.3, senior Howard Liu 35th in 11:55 and sophomore Bryan Lin 41st in 12:13.7.

Monta Vista was not only successful in the boys meet, but also the girls. The Matadors won the girls race outright with very little competition, scoring only 34 points to 64 for runner-up Homestead.

Monta Vista's success came in no small part due to the effort of three runners. Freshman Jean Fang took first place in 12:02.1.

Lynbrook was fourth as a team with junior MayC Huang in the lead with a fifth-place finish in 12:30.3. Sophomore Cindy Ju was 18th in 13:28.9, junior Yvonne Fong 27th in 13:57, freshman Anna Sadovnikova 29th in 14:04 and senior Christina Liu 32nd in 14:25.

Saratoga finished fifth as a team with freshman Katie Nast finishing seventh in 12:40.2. Freshman Amanda Speedy was ninth in 12:51.7, sophomore Katrin Cooper 17th in 13:27.8, junior Brianna Troxell 39th in 14:48.9 and junior Laurel Hui 40th in 14:51.5.

Monta Vista finished first in the junior varsity girls race with senior Judy Liang first. Lynbrook came in second with Shirley Liu leading the effort with an 11th-place finish. Saratoga freshman Lisa Clark was ninth to lead the Falcons to a team third.

Monta Vista took the win in the frosh-soph boys race as well. Freshman Jacob Moe-Lange took third overall to help the effort. Homestead was second with sophomore Sameer Tharakan finishing the race in first place, and then Lynbrook with freshman Andrew Jang finishing 10th overall. Saratoga was fourth with freshman Michael Beam helping with an eighth-place finish.

There were even a few middle schools involved in the race with Redwood Middle School taking the victory in the boys race thanks to eighth grader Nick Olsen, who took second place in the race. Seventh grader Chris Ries was fifth for St. Andrew's.

Blach Middle School took the title in the girls race thanks to eighth grader Zoe Pappas finishing second overall. Redwood was second with eighth grader Karen Wai finishing in fifth place. Then came St. Andrews, led by eighth-grader Megan Lemma's 14th-place finish.