Team closes out strong season
The Piedmont High School girls cross country team completed a terrific season on November 29, finishing 18th at the California Interscholastic Federation Division 4 championships.
“The girls ran for each other all season,” Highlanders coach Steve Zirkelbach said. “They ran as a pack. This was their strength.”
Piedmont scored 438 points. JSerra-San Juan Capistrano finished first with 59 points.
Leighton Mand led the Highlanders, finishing 96th on the 5,000-meter course at Woodward Park in Fresno in 19 minutes, 52.3 seconds. That was a personal-best for the junior on a 5,000-meter course.
Cora Chun and Cora Brozowski Schrader 
Viviane Oesterer 
Amalia Gray 
Cora Chun 
Nikita Gorelik 
Viviane Oesterer 
Skylar Best 
Cora Brozowski Schrader 
Leighton Mand 
L-R: Nikita Gorelik, Viviane Oesterer, Skylar Best, Leighton Mand, Amalia Gray, Cora Chun, Cora Brozowski Schrader
Senior Skylar Best was 112th in a season-best 20:13.8. Sophomore Viviane Oesterer was 118th in 20:19.8 and junior Amalia Gray was 129th in 20:35.2.
“Viviane, and Cora continued to get faster and show their racing grit, something that I look forward to using as the foundation for next year’s team,” Zirkelbach said.
Senior Cora Chun was 133rd in 20:44.6. The top five of seven runners score points. The race also includes individual qualifiers.
“Cora Chun’s return from an early season injury really helped the team, as did the steady performances of the rest of the team,” Zirkelbach said.
Junior Cora Brozowski Schrader was 135th in 20:54.5 and sophomore Nikita Gorelik was 148th in 21:13.4.
La Jolla’s Chiara Dailey was the individual champion in 16:52.7. In combined scoring (not an official category), Piedmont would have finished 95th out of 122 schools.
Irvine’s Summer Wilson had the best girls time of the day of 16:20.0. Conor Lott of Clovis North had the best boys time of 14:43.2.
Photos by Jenni Tsoi