Morgan Hill For the third consecutive year Sobrato’s Lance
Wolfsmith has raced his way to the state cross country meet.
Morgan Hill
For the third consecutive year Sobrato’s Lance Wolfsmith has raced his way to the state cross country meet.
The standout junior was the only runner from both Sobrato High School and Live Oak High School to qualify for the highly competitive state event.
On Saturday the Sobrato boys and girls cross country teams competed with the best runners in the Central Coast Section at the championship meet at Crystal Springs in Belmont, Calif.
Wolfsmith finished third amongst all runners with a time of 15:16 on the 2.95-mile course.
“For him to qualify three years in row is amazing,” coach and father Dave Wolfsmith said. “Only the top five individuals go to state, and this year was the most competitive in years.”
As a team the Sobrato boys finished in ninth amongst 16 teams.
The Sobrato girls also had a good showing, led by senior Abhi Devaraj who finished in 13th with a time of 19:04.
“Abhi broke her personal record by a minute,” Wolfsmith said. “She ran the same course in 20:04 at the league meet … she did exceptionally well.”
As a team the the Sobrato girls finished in fifth place, barely missing the cut off to qualify for state.
“Our girls team had a phenomenal race, but I take my hat off to the CCS this year … I’ve never seen a girls team where all the girls finished in under 20 minutes,” Wolfsmith said. “If you had told me we would not qualify with the times we had, I would have said you are crazy.”
Live Oak
Also competing in Saturday’s CCS meet, the Live Oak girls team placed twelfth out of 16 teams.
They were led by Olivia Duran who placed 28th in a time of 20:05. The Acorn’s next finisher was sophomore Renee Dominguez who placed 42 and ran a time of 20:51. This was a 28 second improvement on her PR for the Crystal Springs course.
Sophomore Pauline Olsen followed in 56th place with a time of 21:26. She just missed a PR, due in part to a hamstring problem.
Sophomore Emily Mandel was the fourth Acorn finisher with a time of 23:24 (a five second PR). She was closely followed by by freshmen Chelsie Faulk who ran 23:32, improving her PR by 1:17.
Mary Luna was on Chelsie’s heels as she ran 23:34.
Junior Vanessa Santoya rounded out the scoring for the girls with a PR of 24:59 (a five second improvement).
Live Oak’s four through seven runners were closely knit, however several minutes behind the top three finishers.
“Our goal is to continue to develop all of the girls, with an emphasis on better team grouping,” Live Oak head coach Dean raymond said. “We’re still a young team, and hope another year’s worth of development will lead to better times.”
On the boys side, junior Matt Morgan was the first Acorn finisher with a time of 17:36 (missing his PR by three seconds).
Sophomore Greg Wong, in his first experience at CCS, finished in 18:00. “This was 24 seconds off his PR, however he will take valuable lessons from the course and the CCS environment for next year,” Raymond said.
