Piedmont High School’s cross country teams had a big day at a rainy and muddy North Coast Section championships on Nov. 23 at Hayward High.
Sophomores Sebastien Swain, Leighton Mand and Amalia Gray qualified for the California Interscholastic Federation championships at Woodward Park in Fresno on Nov. 30.
The Highlander teams also ran well with the girls finishing fourth with 93 points, just eight points behind Bishop O’Dowd for the third and final team qualifying berth in the CIF championships. The boys scored 203 points, good for sixth place. The top five runners not on a qualifying team earned berths in the CIF meet. Swain finished 13th in Division 4 on the three-mile course, finishing in 17 minutes, 15.8 seconds.
“Sebastien went out strong and established his position early and maintained his connection to the top runners throughout the sloppy and slick endeavor,” Piedmont coach Steve Zirkelbach said. “Coming off the last hill, and rounding the backstop headed toward the finish line, he was being chased by several runners who were intent on passing him. Seb was not about to let them pass him and he called upon his grit and speed and fended off the
challengers, diving across the finish line.”
Alex Schleuning was the next Piedmont runner, finishing 30th in 18:03.4. Thomas Ero was 39th in 18:25.6 with Henry Horsley 58th in 18:57.7 and brother Oliver Horsley 67th in 19:22.7. Noah Sohn was a non-scoring 86th (20:04.5) and Devon Thai was 125th (22:10.8).
Zirklebach said despite the poor conditions, Ero bettered his time on the course from last year.
Ian Sharp of Archie Williams won the race 16:23.6. The Peregrine Falcons won the team scoring with 45 points with St. Mary’s-Albany second with 58.
Mand was fourth in the Division 4 girls race in 20:40.2. Zirkelbach said Mand was determined to stay with the leaders. Ani Stieg of Archie Williams won the race in 19:50.1 with Bishop O’Dowd’s Lucy King second in 20:10.1.
Amalia Gray was 14th and the fifth runner not from a team who qualified for CIF. She finished in 21:25.3. Just missing the cut in 15th was Piedmont’s Caroline Taylor (21:27.4). Viviane Oesterer was 23rd in 21:48.9 with Skylar Best in 35th (22:33.9), Cora Chun in 40th (22:43.3) and Cora Brozowski Schrader 54th (23:59.2).
Archie Williams (58 points), Acalanes (75) and Bishop O’Dowd (85) were the team qualifiers.
De La Salle’s Trey Caldwell was the top overall boys winner, taking Division 2 in 15:26.2. Monte Vista’s Alexandra Powell was the top girl, winning Division 2 girls in 17:55.3.