Cross country takes fourth and seventh
The Piedmont High School cross country teams had a successful foray into Half Moon Bay on October 4, placing well in the annual Artichoke Invitational.
The girls took fourth with 124 points in the Varsity Small Schools Division. Leighton Mand was 16th in 15 minutes, 11 seconds on the 2.3-mile course. Skylar Best was 20th in 15:26 and Amalia Gray was 22nd in 15:35. Nikita Gorelik came home 33rd in 15:58 while Viviane Oesterer finished 55th in 16:34 to complete the scoring. Cora Chun was 59th in 16:45.
Tsukasa Sano 
Leighton Mand 
PHS Cross Country: Dylan Wallway, Dresden Schulte-Sasse, Ian Chung, Aaron Bennett, Noah Sohn, Devon Thai
Sonoma Academy’s Josie Hill took first in 13:35, nine seconds ahead of Ava Decleve of Scotts Valley. Northgate won the team title with 36 points, well ahead of the pack.
The Highlander boys finished seventh with 217 points. Northgate again was the top school with 94.
Noah Sohn led Piedmont, finishing 32nd in 13:05. Ian Chung and Aaron Bennett were 50th and 51st, respectively, in identical times of 13:24. Dylan Wallway was 55th in 13:29 and Devon Thai was 60th in 13:35. Dresden Schulte-Sasse was 72nd in 13:54.
On October 1, the Highlanders participated in a West Alameda County Conference multi-team meet at Point Pinole. Piedmont scored 62 points, best of the nine teams. Jmel Tesfai of San Leandro won the boys event in 15:42.11 on the three-mile course. Alex Schleuning of Piedmont finished third in 16:17.18. Sohn was 10th followed by Chung in 11th. Their times were 16:32.16 and 16:36.31, respectively. Bennett finished 15th in 16:39.13. Thai took 23rd (17:02.59) and Wallway was 25th (17:08.00). Schulte-Sasse was 32nd in 17:25.01 while Luca LaForte was 62nd in 18:10.27.
The Piedmont girls were fourth out of nine teams with 90 points. Berkeley was first with 46. Best was the best Highlander, taking eighth in 19:13.48. Mand was 14th in 19:55.13 with Cora Brozowski Schrader 19th in 20:14.53.
Oesterer came home 23rd in 20:32.50, three spots ahead of Gorelik (20:46.53). Kelsey Coleman was 28th in 20:50.15. Camile Houser was 33rd (21:03.00), right ahead of Chun (21:07.32). Mara Kemp-Malone was 37th in 21:20.25.
The Highlanders next compete at the Clovis Invitational on October 10.
Photos courtesy of Steve Zirkelbach