NOHE LEMA, WILLOW GLEN
Sport: Cross country
Class: Senior
For most of his high school career, Lema ran behind talented teammates Mohamed Abdalla and Marcos Corona. On Saturday, Lema emerged as an elite runner, winning the Division III race at the Stanford Invitational. Lema covered the 3.1-mile course in 15 minutes, 38 seconds, the best time by a CCS runner in any division. "After running in the shadow of Marcos and Mohamed the last few years, Nohe needed a breakthrough race like that to build his confidence and help him reach his true potential," Willow Glen Coach Victor Santamaria said. After tiring and falling back to third with three quarters of a mile to go, "he seized the lead and took it home," the coach said.