The Piedmont High School cross country teams had a strong performance at the Clovis Invitational on October 12. The girls team won first place in the Small School Yellow Division race with 44 points. That was 31 points ahead of fellow East Bay team St. Mary’s-Albany.
Skylar Best led the way for the Highlanders, coming in fifth in the division in 20 minutes, 47.6 seconds on the 5,000-meter course at Woodward Park. The course is also used for the California Interscholastic Federation championships.
Amalia Gray was seventh in the division in 21:06.5 while Cora Chun was ninth (21:28.4). Leighton Mand (11th, 21:34.5) and Caroline Taylor (12th, 21:36.9) completed the scoring for Piedmont. Also finishing were Mara Kemp-Malone (17th, 22:10.2) and Gladwin Horsley (27th, 22:54.2).
Highlanders coach Steve Zirkelbach said that Mand was sick and was a “fierce competitor.”
On the boys side, Sebastien Swain was 74th overall in the Small School Blue Division race in 16:57.9. Noah Sohn was 120th in 17:38.0 with Thomas Ero 157th in 18:17.2 and Alex Schleuning 159th in 18:19.5. Oliver Horsley was 175th in 18:54.8 with Devon Thai right behind him in 176th in 18:56.3. Henry Horsley was 182nd in 19:21.7.
Zirkelbach said Sohn improved his time on the course by 41 seconds while Ero did the route a full two-minutes faster than his last try.