The Monte Vista Invitational - Home of the Eliminator!

Putting pressure on the team, Coach Davis arranged for a Black Tie Shuttle to take the Mustangs to the North Coast Section meet this morning.  However, it was soon obvious that the squads deserved the royal treatment, as both the girls and boys teams came ready to race today.  Perfect weather - sunny but cool - greated the 20+ Division 1 teams that came to compete for the two state meet berth.  Also up for grabs were 5 individual state selections.  All told, 10 NCS titles were up for grabs today (boys and girls for 5 divisions).

Up first were the Girls Varsity team, who fielded a slightly different lineup due to injuries, but you could tell that they were focused on erasing the memories of the EBAL meet.  With Sr Captain Renee Lau out with a stress fracture, and Sr Lauren Ho out with a probable one, alternates Sophomore Anna Hoyt and Sr Kim Chin stepped in and were ready to go.  New alternate Kelly Peterson warmed up with the team, but was not needed as the rest of the ladies were more than ready.

From the gun, Sr Chloe Wood jumped out with the leaders, setting her sights on trying to grab a state meet spot.  With many runners ranked ahead of her going into the race, this was not going to be an easy task.  Chloe settled into the top 10 and hung on through a quick first mile, with Sophomore Nicole Aha running just behind in a second group.  Jr Kaitlin Kelly pressed hard early, while Sr Brett Zorich and Soph Kimmy Abood race close behind.  Anna and Kim kept pace, with Anna slowly moving up in the middle parts of the race.

As the race unfolded, the Mustangs moved closer as a pack, with Brett steadily picking off runners to move into the #3 scoring position, and Nicole working into the race's top 20.  Anna Hoyt passed a ton of runners in the last mile - closing to within sight of #4 Kimmy and nailing down the vital 5th spot for the team.  Up front, Chloe battled strong with the top runners from the other D1 teams, hanging on to finish 12th overall in a huge PR time of 19:08 (6:22 pace/mile).   Chloe would end up just one second - two runners - from taking the last state meet spot - a great effort.  Nicole was #2 for MV, showing that her EBAL fall was a long ways behind her.  She ran a great race of 19:31, 19th place, right behind Cal's #2 runner.  Brett also rebounded from her EBAL race, nailing down the 3rd spot in a sub 20 time of 19:57 and taking 26th place.  Kimmy Abood completes her standout season by taking the #4 spot - 35th place - while alternate Anna Hoyt comes up huge by finishing in 47th place - 4 places ahead of Cal's 5th runner.  That proves to be the difference as the Stangs beat Cal HS for the first time all season - by 5 points!  Kaitlin Kelly is #6 today, finishing out the season despite suffering from severe leg pain that has hampered her training and racing.  Her willingness to line up and race was an inspiration to the team  - for sure.  Kim Chin rounds out the squad in 7th in a very respectable 70th place - one of the fastest 7th runners on the day.

When the score was tallied, the girls had grabbed 4th place in the tough field, beating Cal, while getting beat by only Granada (EBAL Champs), defending champs College Park and state ranked Castro Valley.  One spot from the medal stand, only two spots from qualifying for state.  While overshadowed by the succes of this years boys team, the Lady Stangs proved that they are among the very best in the North Coast Section, and put their finest performance of the season together when it matter the most.  They should feel very satisfied with what they accomplished this season!

http://ezmeets.com/2007NCSXC/DivisionIGirls.html

Hayward HS, Hayward CA
Division I Girls Results
3.00 Miles, 4.84 Kilometers