Team readying for WACC, NCS
Piedmont High School’s cross country teams had another successful invitational on October 25 at the Haystack Tuneup at Hayward High School.
The girls team finished second with 60 points in the girls small school race, just behind team winner College Prep (56). Leighton Mand finished eighth on the same three-mile course. The Highlanders will run at the West Alameda County Conference and North Coast Section championships in the coming weeks. Her time was 19 minutes, 6.87 seconds. Skylar Best was 10th in 19:34.66. Vivianne Oesterer was 13th in 19:46.06 while Cora Brozowski Schrader was 16th in 20:03.47 and Kelsey Coleman 18th in 20:11.56. Amalia Gray (21st; 20:17.73), Cora Chun (22nd; 20:22.51) and Nikita Gorelik (24th; 20:49.23) rounded out the Piedmont runners.
Brozowski Schrader said, “I tried to get out more conservatively in the first mile and have more even splits.”
That paid off in a 15-second personal-best. Also setting PRs were Mand, Oesterer and by 39 seconds, Coleman.
“I wanted to start the race not pushing the first mile, but keeping decent positioning, and focusing on what I can do throughout the entire race instead of just getting out hard,” Mand said. “After letting the adrenaline take me through the first mile, I decided to focus on picking off girls ahead of me. I wasn’t worried about how I would feel in a mile because I was feeling good in the moment.”
Emma Singh of Head-Royce was the individual winner in 17:49.51.
The boys team took fifth in the small schools division with 122 points, just two points behind fourth place College Prep. St. Mary’s-Albany won the team championship with 50 points.
Aaron Bennett led the Highlanders with a 16th place finish in 16:19.93. Ian Chung was 20th in 16:35.50 with Noah Sohn in 29th in 16:47.14 and Alex Schleuning in 31st in 16:50.32. Dylan Wallway was 35th in 16:53.45, two spots ahead of Devon Thai (17:00.04). Dresden Schulte-Sasse took 50th in 17:28.52.
Bennett set a PR by 19 seconds.
“I thought the race went really well and I’m proud of how everyone competed,” Bennett said. “Going through mile one, I was sticking with my teammates and I was feeling pretty solid. “In the second mile, I started to pass people on the hill and maintained a solid pace. Once the third mile started, I knew I was still feeling strong so I picked up the pace which allowed me to pass lots of people. With 800 meters left in the race, I was definitely feeling tired but I reminded myself that pain is temporary and I’ll never regret going 100 percent in a race.”