Thursday, November 3, 2011

WCAL Championship Results

Full Results: CLICK HERE

Crystal Springs, Belmont - The Valley Christian Warriors competed in the WCAL Championship Wednesday at Crystal Springs. Expectations were high coming into the race as both the girls and boys varsity teams had aspirations of qualifying for CCS and in the midst of one of their best seasons ever in school history. The warm “Indian summer” decided to hold on just long enough to make things difficult for the runners as temperatures on the course soared into mid 80’s. Despite the challenging conditions 22 runners ran their lifetime best on the Crystal Springs course!

“I am so proud of our runners,” Coach Small said after the race. “My prayer from the start of the season is that our runners learn how to challenge themselves and be dedicated to being their best. I think yesterday’s results reflect that they have.”

Varsity Boys:
The day before the WCAL Championship the Warriors were challenged by Captain Dustin Laucella in their pre-race meeting to give it their all. “In the end it will only be you and God who know if you gave it your all,” Laucella said in his team address. “When you cross the line know that you left it all out there.” The team responded as the boys bettered their own school record for combined team time by almost a minute proving once again that they are indeed the best in school history. Sean Davis finished 2nd over-all in 15:45 to lead the charge, an eight second improvement from two weeks ago at WCAL #2. Big improvements came from Eyobed Mesfun (17:38) and Ryan Ensor (17:48) who both dipped into the mid 17’s while Alex Ascencio had a breakthrough performance improving 1:08 to run 18:42. Dustin Laucella rounded out the scoring team with an 18:44 while Eric Ortiz (18:45) and Corey Bentley (18:51) also improved as all 7 runners finished in the 18’s.

JV Boys:
Daniel Kleinsmith ended his high school cross country career on a high note leading the JV squad with a time of 20:51 running his first time under 21 minutes and a 17 second personal best. He was one of 15 boys who ran their best time ever on the Crystal Springs course Wednesday. Senior Josh Profio is another runner who has shown dramatic improvement this season. Profio ran 27:19 last year at the WCAL meet and had one of the biggest improvements of the entire team finishing in 23:47, a huge 3:33 improvement. Helping him to his best time was Senior Derek Seaman, who after running his personal best time of 21:27 two weeks ago, was coming off a cold and decided to help his teammate accomplish his season goal of running under 24 minutes. His selfless decision paid off as Profio ended his senior year with his best time ever.

Some of the biggest improvements came from the freshman. Samuel Han and Paul James both improved my more than a minute. Han finished in 20:53, his first time under 21 minutes this season and James improved a whopping 1:35 to finish in 22:13. Another freshman who has come on strong this season is Wilson Ye. Improving 20 seconds Ye dipped under 22 minutes for the first running 21:58.
Other outstanding performances came from Peter Sohn who improved 2:22 to finish in a personal best 23:18 while Mario Orlando was the most improved on the day running 27:03, an improvement of 2:55!

Varsity Girls:
Morgan Lira shot out like a rocket the first mile and took control of the race passing the mile in 5:40. Continuing to push through mile 2 she extended her lead to about 30 seconds. The warm temperatures that were hovering in the 80’s began to take its toll as the pace began to fade. After a steep uphill at about 2.25 miles her lead dwindled away as Laura Vazquez of Presentation made her move toward the front. Lira pushed herself to the limit and held her lead until about 100 meters to go when her body began to shut down and she was forced to walk the last 50 meters. The lead was big enough to still finish 2nd over-all as she was rushed to the paramedics suffering from heat exhaustion. Recovering later that night she reflected on her performance, “I felt really good… but I guess I took it out too fast the first mile.”

Behind her the Warriors were having a fantastic day. They pace went out hard led by Jessica Xu who took out the first mile in a top 10 position in 6:14. The team followed as Ashley Lara, Karen Mac and Kellianne Connolly all passed the mile in a quick 6:25, all in the top 20. Xu went on to finish 13th in 20:03. Her time is a 46 second personal best and currently places her #12 on the team’s all-time list. Ashley Lara is in her first year running but has been running all season with a varsity mentality. A fierce competitor Lara went on to finish in 20th place, a personal best time of 20:30. She was the second fastest freshman in the WCAL and is the fastest freshman since Isabel Garcia ran 20:05 in 2008.

Kellianne Connolly has had her most consistent season yet and came up big running a personal best 20:47 to finish 4th for the Warriors. Karen Mac rounded out the scoring team running 20:59 as all 5 runners finished under 21 minutes for the first time this season. Struggling through cramping the mast mile Mac battled through and gutted out a personal best by 7 seconds. Rounding out the varsity team was Shannon Luu (22:37) and Isabel Garcia (23:50), who has not yet fully recovered from injury last season.

The girls qualified for the CCS Championship by meeting the CCS at-large qualifying time and will compete next Saturday for a top 3 position that will qualify them for a trip to the state meet.

JV Girls:
The JV girls are a young group made up of mostly first year runners, only Megan Gillespie and Lindsey Folden have previous experience. Despite being new to the sport these runners have taken huge steps this season and have shown dramatic improvement over the season.

Megan Gillespie led the charge for the JV girls and despite having an off day she still was able to get within 37 seconds of her best time ever. Lindsey Folden got her season best time on the course and broke 25 minutes for the first time this season. Anne Blaha has been battling shin splints for the past few weeks and managed to finish just 10 seconds off of her best time! Also running strong was Amanda Ernenwein who got a 30 second personal best, along with Allison Mai, Elaine Ma and Morgan Haag who all battled some of their best times this season. Lisa Grossman has also shown dramatic improvement running a 21 second improvement.

To see WCAL Championship Photos from www.sportsimagewire.com: CLICK HERE


Boys Results - WCAL #1 @ Crystal Springs (2.95 Mi)









Team Record: Sean Davis 15:45 2011













Mile 1 Mile 2 Mile 3 Previous Best

Sean Davis 12 15:45 5:00 10:15 (5:15) 15:45 (5:30) 15:53 (-0:08)

Eyobed Mesfun 11 17:38 5:42 11:40 (5:58) 17:38 (5:58) 17:58 (-0:20)

Ryan Ensor 11 17:48 5:24 11:27 (6:03) 17:48 (6:20) 18:05 (-0:17)

Alex Ascencio 11 18:42 5:55 12:10 (6:15) 18:42 (6:30) 19:50 (-1:08)

Dustin Laucella 12 18:44 5:57 12:23 (6:26) 18:44 (6:19) 18:35 (+0:09)

Eric Ortiz 12 18:45 5:57 12:23 (6:26) 18:45 (6:20) 18:46 (-0:01)

Corey Bentley 11 18:51 5:57 12:23 (6:26) 18:51 (6:26) 18:56 (-0:05)

Daniel Kliensmith 12 20:51 6:45 14:02 (7:17) 20:51 (6:49) 21:06 (-0:17)

Samuel Han 9 20:53 6:45 14:02 (7:17) 20:53 (6:51) 22:19 (-1:26)

Nick Staub 11 21:29 6:46 14:07 (7:21) 21:29 (7:22) 20:53 (+0:36)

Wilson Ye 9 21:58 6:28 14:20 (7:52) 21:58 (7:38) 22:18 (-0:20)

Paul James 9 22:13 7:08 15:00 (7:52) 22:13 (7:13) 23:48 (-1:35)

Peter Sohn 10 23:18 7:00 15:26 (8:26) 23:18 (7:52) 25:40 (-2:22)

Inigo Garcia 10 23:22 7:14 15:28 (8:14) 23:22 (7:52) 23:40 (-0:18)

Derek Seman 12 23:46 7:14 15:32 (8:18) 23:46 (8:14) 21:27 (+2:19)

Josh Profio 12 23:47 7:14 15:32 8:18) 23:47 (8:15) 25:05 (-1:18)

Patrick Wang 10 24:34 7:30 15:28 (7:58) 24:34 (9:06) 25:00 (-0:26)

Mario Orlando 10 27:03 8:17 17:36 (9:19) 27:03 (9:43) 29:58 (-2:55)
















Girls Results - WCAL #1 @ Crystal Springs (2.95 Mi)








Team Record: Jennifer Bergman 17:16 2008













Mile 1 Mile 2 Mile 3 Previous Best

Morgan Lira 12 18:43 5:40 11:54 (6:14) 18:43 (6:48) 18:21 (+0:23)

Jessica Xu 10 20:03 6:14 13:02 (6:48) 20:03 (7:00) 20:49 (-0:46)

Ashley Lara 9 20:30 6:25 13:36 (7:11) 20:30 (6:54) 20:34 (-0:04)

Kellianne Connolly 11 20:47 6:25 13:31 (7:06) 20:47 (7:15) 20:58 (-0:12)

Karen Mac 10 20:59 6:25 13:31 (7:06) 20:59 (7:27) 21:06 (-0:07)

Shannon Luu 10 22:38 7:13 15:27 (8:14) 22:37 (7:10) 22:37 (+0:01)

Isabel Garcia 12 23:50 7:03 15:27 (8:14) 23:50 (8:23) 19:47 (+3:57)

Megan Gillespie 10 24:13 7:12 15:47 (8:35) 24:13 8:26) 23:36 (+0:37)

Lindsey Folden 11 24:58 7:55 16:19 (8:24) 24:58 (8:39) 24:49 (+0:10)

Anne Blaha 9 25:21 8:04 16:50 (8:46) 25:21 (8:31) 25:12 (+0:09)

Amanda Ernenwein 9 25:31 7:56 16:40 (8:44) 25:31 (8:51) 26:03 (-0:32)

Allison Mai 9 26:15 8:13 17:13 (9:00) 26:15 (9:02) 26:03 (+0:12)

Elaine Ma 9 26:46 8:03 17:26 (9:23) 26:46 (9:20) 26:20 (+0:26)

Morgan Haag 9 27:24 8:15 17:52 (9:37) 27:24 (9:34) 27:41 (-0:17)

Lisa Grossman 10 27:28 8:02 18:14 (10:16) 27:28 (9:14) 27:49 (-0:21)

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