By Kevin Sparrer
Some athletic events require great feats of strength, but for Alan Menezes of the Saratoga cross country team it was a great strength of feet that drove him and his team to take second place in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League at the finals held at Crystal Springs on Oct. 30.
The Saratoga junior finished the 2.95-mile run in 15:52, which was fast enough for third place overall behind Michael Johnson and Dylan Shawhan of Los Gatos.
Supporting Menezes were sophomore Nick Olsen (eighth, 16:34) and junior Kian Banks (ninth, 16:37). Rounding out Saratoga's point scorers were sophomore Kyle Borch (20th, 17:10) and senior Will Perera (17:14).
Lynbrook was sixth in the division. The Vikings were led by Eric Surprenant (19th, 17:10), followed by Gene Burinskiy (26th, 17:19), A.J. Flint (27th, 17:23), Amrit Subramanian (32nd, 17:45) and Chris Carter (35th, 18:01).
The girls varsity results were similar to the boys with Los Gatos coming out on top behind the efforts of Kaela Townsend, but it was Lynbrook who followed the Wildcats with a second-place finish.
Leading the Vikings was Cindy Huang (sixth, 19:14). Next were Lauren Tang (seventh, 19:15), Chianna Wang (13th, 20:30), Kristen Bryson (20th, 20:55) and Michelle Yee (24th, 21:07).
Saratoga finished in fourth place as a team. Katie Nast (fifth, 19:03) flew in front for the Falcons. Karen Wai (12th, 20:09) was the second Falcon to finish and was followed by Christine La (23rd, 21:05), Katrin Cooper (25th, 21:08) and Jan Iyer.
BVAL finals
The day before the De Anza Division finals, the Blossom Valley Athletic League finals were held at Crystal Springs. The Prospect boys took second in the West Valley Division finals behind Pioneer. Alex Collins (fourth, 17:55) was the lead Panther followed by Nick Cotter (10th, 18:24), Richard Correa-Sorich (13th, 18:27), Joel Palermo (14th, 18:36) and Matt Kreige (15th, 18:43).
Prospects' girls cross country team had a little more luck in the event, finishing first in the West Valley Division. The female Panthers were led by the division champion Rebecca Habatmu (first, 17:51), who finished almost a full three minutes ahead of the next closest runner. Alexandra Schindler (fourth, 21:52) was next followed by Alexandra Lotz (sixth, 22:02), Riley Aterio (eighth, 22:58) and Melissa Rosanno (17th, 24:45).
Running in the Santa Teresa Division finals was Westmont, whose boys struggled a bit and finished seventh. Morgan Chappell (ninth, 17:16) led the running. Gabriel Pagan (21st, 17:53) was second for the Warriors with Trent Ueunten (23rd, 18:05), Nick Pagan (39th, 19:16) and Justin Le (41st, 19:43) completing the scoring.