Acorns and Bulldogs participate at Gilroy’s Avis Kelley
Invitational this past weekend
Gilroy – There seemed to be a trend in place for Live Oak at Saturday’s Gilroy High-hosted Avis Kelley Invitational: The more the sun shined, the more the times dropped.
It was certainly the case for freshman Olivia Duran. She had the Acorns’ best finish of the day, a third-place performance in the 3200 with a personal-best time of 12:25.65.
Whether or not it was a product of the much-welcomed clear blue skies, Duran had a performance that helped her break out of slump in a big way. Her time Saturday was a PR by a whopping 20 seconds.
“The last few meets, I’ve been really stuck in the 12:40’s, 12:50’s,” the freshman said. “I think I PR’d today because of all the competition.”
Duran took third behind Amanda Barber of Enterprise (Redding) (12:07.21) and fellow freshman Kathleen Miller of Gilroy (12:25.65).
With senior distance star and UCLA signee Cobbie Jones likely out for the season with a stress fracture, Live Oak coach Dean Raymond said Duran’s steady improvement has been very important to the team.
“With Cobbie out, I’m really pleased with how Olivia has learned from Cobbie and (senior distance runner) Lisa (Herrera) and how she’s now leading by example,” she said. “She’s a pleasure to coach as a freshman because everything is new and exciting to her.”
Two other Live Oak athletes who had big PR’s were Nolan Zandi, who took eighth in the 3200 (11:19) with a time 17 seconds better than his previous best, and Andrew Taylor in the 800. Taylor’s 2:09 was six seconds improved on his old time.
“It’s been so wet for so long so the sunshine is bringing out a lot of energy,” Raymond said.
Sobrato was also in the 27-team field and had three top-ten performers in Ariel Mosbrucker (4th high jump, 4-08; 8th long jump, 14-01.25), Franzisha Gelert (T-4th pole vault, 6-06; T-7th triple jump, 29-07) and Lance Wolfsmith (7th 1600, 4:56).
Ana Patejdl is the sports editor of the Gilroy Dispatch. She can be reached at ap******@gi************.com.
