WACC championships
Piedmont High School’s girls cross country team took third in the Foothill Division at the West Alameda County Conference championships on November 9 at Hayward High. The Highlanders scored 61 points, behind Berkeley (21) and Castro Valley (47).
The Foothill and Shoreline division ran one race and were broken into divisions in the scoring. The Foothill Division is the stronger one and had the top times.
Leighton Mand led Piedmont in fifth place overall in 19 minutes, 16.77 seconds on the three-mile course.
“Leighton Mand continues to impress everyone with her fiercely-focused competitiveness,” Highlanders coach Steve Zirkelbach said. “She improved her time ton this course by 22 seconds over the last time she ran it.”
Skylar Best was 12th in 19:55.46 with Viviane Oesterer right behind her in 13th in 19:58.60. Amalia Gray and Cora Chun ran 17-18 in 20:16.90 and 20:24.40, respectively. Caroline Taylor was 23rd in 20:30.62 with Nasreen Schulze 30th in 21:34.69.
“The great thing about this girls team is that they are very supportive of each other,” Zirkelbach said. “There is a strong sense of team and the way they work together in training and competition keeps propelling them forward.”
Berkeley’s Carina Nottingham won the race in 18:04.60. Castro Valley’s Iliana Nierengarten was second in 18:25.87.
In the boys race, Sebastien Swain finished eighth in 16:19.95. Swain lost his shoe in the mud early in the race and had to stop to put it back on, according to Zirkelbach.
Alex Schleuning was 18th in 17:09.04 while Thomas Ero was 33rd in 17:43.49. Oliver Horsley finished 41st in 18:04.26 with Devon Thai in 44th in 18:12.26. Henry Horsley (50th, 18:34.28) and Noah Sohn (54th, 18:47.70) also ran well.
Zirkelbach said Schleuning had his course-best by 16 seconds.
The Highlanders finished sixth out of six teams in the Foothill Division team standings with 118 points. Bishop O’Dowd took the title with 38. The Dragons Sebastian Taylor edged Berkeley’s Preston Mullen for first place, 15:25.58-15:25.93.
Next up is the North Coast Section championships on November 23, also at Hayward. Both Highlander teams will compete.
Photo courtesy of Piedmont Cross Country