It is a measure of Live Oak High super sophomore Cobbie
Jones
’s expectations that a third-place finish at section and a
second straight trip to state left her less than completely
satisfied.
It is a measure of Live Oak High super sophomore Cobbie Jones’s expectations that a third-place finish at section and a second straight trip to state left her less than completely satisfied.
In her first year with the Live Oak High cross-country team, Jones qualified for the State Finals with her top-three finish at the Central Coast Section Division I girls cross-country championships at Crystal Springs in Belmont on Saturday.
Jones galloped over the muddy course in 18:39 and vied for first with the Milpitas duo of Marie Nguyen and Erinn Kim for much of the race. Nguyen (18:26) and Kim (18:28) finished 1-2 in the section finale.
Jones will compete at the State Meet at Woodward Park in Fresno on Nov. 25.
As a freshman at Los Gatos High last year, Jones finished fourth in Division III and also qualified for state.
Live Oak coach Dean Raymond said Jones’ performance was outstanding considering she was going up against teammates who were working together and Jones hadn’t had a teammate to push her all season.
“She ran with with the Milpitas girls for two and a half miles – she ran a gutsy race,” Raymond said.
But it wasn’t quite enough for the massively talented and motivated runner, according to Raymond.
“Her goal was to win it and that was an admirable goal,” Raymond said. “She’d actually run faster on this course (18:10 in October) and she was aiming for under 17 minutes. But it was a muddy course and no one was running that fast. Her expectations are high and my expectations are high for her. Hopefully, she learned a lot and can apply that two weeks from now.”
Meanwhile, Jones’ Live Oak teammates were exceeding expectations, as No. 2 runner Yesendia Miranda finished 32nd in 20:56 and No. 3 Daniella King took 40th in 21:17, both personal bests.
Raymond said Miranda, a sophomore in her first cross-country season, and King, a senior who has competed at CCS four straight years, both turned in solid races.
“Yesenia is still learning cross-country and Cobbie is a great role model for her but I think she’ll be the one helping Cobbie in the next few years,” Raymond said. “For Daniella, I’dlike to say well-done young lady. She’s had an up-and-down four-year career and I was pleased to see her end it on a high note.”
Also for the Acorn girls, sophomore Alyssa Nelson (90th in 25:21), freshman Joelle Jenkins (93rd in 25:48) and junior Regina Bowden (95th in 28:24) showed off the young team’s potential.
The Live Oak girls team finished 10th out of 14 teams in Division I after qualifying for CCS with a third-place finish in the Tri-County Athletic League.
T-Cal rivals Hollister and Salinas finished third and seventh, respectively.
Meanwhile, it was a tale of despair and elation for the two Live Oak boys who competed in the Division I race last weekend.
Junior Billy Wong, who was hampered by an injury suffered at the T-Cal finals, just missed qualifying for state by two places for the second consecutive season. Wong finished 14th in 16:27 after working non-stop for the past two weeks to recover from a sprained ankle.
But junior Jonathan Kamei, who replaced the injured sophomore Nick Mott at CCS, rose to the occasion of his first trip to section in his first cross-country season with a 53rd-place finish in 17:39.
