By Kevin Sparrer
Kian Banks and Alan Menezes ran one-two in the boys race, and Katie Nast, Katrin Cooper and Christine La finished one-two-three for the girls as Saratoga dominated its own invitational last week on the Herriman Avenue campus.
The speedy Saratoga threesome of Nast, Cooper and La sparked the Falcons to a team championship in the girls varsity division at the Saratoga Scrimmage on Sept. 18.
In the boys race, it was a pair of Falcons leading the individual pack, but it was Lynbrook taking team honors at the meet.
Sophomore Luca Signore led the Vikings to the team championship with Lynbrook scoring 81 points to edge second-place Cupertino (87).
Signore was fourth overall, but the first Viking to complete the 2-mile run at Saratoga High in 10:27. Junior Gene Burinsky (14th, 11:15), sophomore Amrit Subramanian (15th, 11:15), senior Eric Surprenant (23rd, 11:27) and junior Andrew Hsiu (25th, 11:28) finished out the top five for Lynbrook. Junior A.J. Flint and junior Andrew Jang also ran for the Vikings.
Behind Lynbrook in the run was Cupertino with 87 points. Senior Abiy Gebrekristos finished third overall in 10:25 to lead the Pioneers. Junior Stas Rumyantsev (sixth, 10:42), sophomore Ryo Kubozono (16th, 11:17), sophomore Derek Zidou (29th, 11:33) and sophomore Dennis Rong (33rd, 11:42) finishing the scoring for 'Tino.
In fifth place in the run, behind Wilcox and Los Altos, was host Saratoga. Banks, a junior, was the first finisher overall in 10:06 and Menezes, also a junior, second in 10:07). Senior Will Perera (17th, 11:17), junior Michael Beam (30th, 11:35) and junior James Arroyo (53rd, 12:18) were other Falcons in the top five. Bart Whitely also ran for Saratoga.
Saratoga's girls were able to take home the gold in the team standings, dominating the race with just 23 points. Nast, a junior, was the first female finisher in 12:07 with Cooper, a senior, second in 13:21 and La, a sophomore, third in 13:26. Sophomore Sophia Cooper (13:39) finished eighth and sophomore Jan Iyer (13:40) came in ninth. Sophomore Karen Wai and senior Anna Souskova also ran for the Falcons.
Lynbrook's girls varsity team came in fourth in the race with sophomore Michelle Yee (fourth, 13:32) leading the effort for the Vikings. Behind her was sophomore Kristen Brysom (fifth, 13:33), freshmen Cindy Huang (27th, 14:41), Lauren Tang (28th, 14:43) and senior Cindy Ju (38th, 15:09). Sophomore Chianna Wang also ran.
Lynbrook also finished first in the boys junior varsity division, running up a low 44 points. Running for the Vikings were Archit Sheth-Shaw, Andrew Lum, Vash Madabhushi, Juno Song and Vincent Li.
Saratoga came in seventh in JV action with 171 points. The scorers for the Falcons were Eddie Zhang, Joe Stevens, Dennis Chang, Brad Lee, and Avinash Kumar.
Lynbrook second to Los Gatos in the girls JV run with 59 points. The scorers for the Vikings were Jamie Ngo, Anna Sadovnikova, Lauren Comisar, Nishi Waghray and Brianna Tucker.
Saratoga finished in fourth with 182 points, only one point behind third-place Milpitas. The point scorers for the Falcons were Molly Jordan, Ashley Chou, Saniha Shanker, Ellen Scott and Rachel Prabhu.
For the frosh-soph boys, it was Saratoga taking the win with 43 points. The scorers were Nick Olsen, Kyle Borch, Kyle Fukui, Pat Soung and Garrick Chan.
Lynbrook came in third with 51 points. The Vikings that scored were Willie Huang, Alvin Chang, Kevin Chuang, Ryan DiBiase and Vivek Singh.