Monday, October 28, 2013

XC Finishes Season vs Head Royce, 9 also run at MLK

This past week there was another first for the team as on Tuesday we ran in a meet at Joaquin Miller Park. The meet was hosted by Head Royce and Piedmont by far had the largest number of runners of any team. The race took place in Woodminster Bowl, which has been the site of cross country races in the East Bay for many decades. It is a venue used by many school for their cross country races. This meet was different than previous ones in that all the girls ran together in one race and then all the boys, regardless of grade. In addition, the race distance was a bit longer that what we usually compete at, 1.5 miles. The course is very viewer friendly and a picturesque setting for a cross country race. Official results from this meet are not yet available but will be posted to our website when they are:



The first race was the girls and Piedmont runners led from the beginning. Both Erin Hong and Clarissa Lam, both 7thgraders, quickly separated themselves from the field and pushed the pace the entire way. This was Erin’s 3rdcross country race in recent days, as on Friday she ran Mt. Sac in Southern California (2 miles and finished 11th in the sweepstakes race for middle school girls) and on Sunday did a 3K race at Woodminster where she finished in 2nd place. As both girls went through the meadow their final time, Erin had a very slim lead over Clarissa. Both girls were working hard, and in the final sprint to the tape Erin edged out Clarissa by the narrowest of margins. Both girls broke the course record for this meet, with Erin being the record holder due to her win. In 3rdplace, and surprising the field, was 6th grader Maggie Black who ran a very strong race and has continued to improve as the season has progressed. Other 6th grade girls in our top five team finishers were Josie Gross-Whitaker in 4thplace overall, Fiona Hunter in 5th place, Maria Del Rosario-Chan in 8th place, and Sophia Zalewski in 19th place. Space does not allow me to list all the 6thgrade girls but they showed a lot of “grit” and heart running with the older girls and a distance that for them is a bit longer than their other races. It should be noted that Piedmont girls took places 1 through 14, an impressive showing of our team talent across the board.


On the boys side, Piedmont runners also did very well and and garnered five places in the top 10 finishers. In 2nd place was Lorand Cheng and he was closely followed by Sam Reynolds and Ethan Argue in 3rd and 4th  place respectively. Our other top ten finishers were Toby Fischer in 6th place and Andrew Stoddard in 9th. Just finishing out of a top 10 spot was Dylan Thayer in 11th.  In addition, several 6th grade boys finished in the top half of the race. Our top five finishers were Josh Berg in 27th place overall, Colby Bookfield in 29thplace, Max Podell in 32nd place, and Timothy Taylor in 34thplace. 



To view more pictures from this race see:




On October 24, nine PMS runners ran in the meet at MLK in Berkeley. In the 6th grade boys race, Timothy Taylor ran strong the entire way and finished in 5th place a time of 6:27 for one mile. In addition, both Cameron Davis and Daniel Kretzer ran a solid races, hung with the other runners the entire way and finished in 34th and 41st places respectively and their times were 7:14 and 7:30. On the 6th grade girl’s side, Ella Phillips was our sole entry and she ran well finishing in 50th place and a time of 9:00, and I think she had a smile on her face the entire time.


Our lone entrant in the 7 & 8thgrade race was 7th grader Julia Huffaker who finished a very respectable 28th place in a time of 8:42. In the 7&8th grade boys race the runners were Ethan Argue (23rd) in 7:24, Sam Reynolds (44th) in 7:53, Darryl Tjogas (45th) in 7:54, and Zack Pine (71st) in 8:41. This was our last regular season meet and we limited participants on purpose to those who needed this meet for three regular season meets.

Friday, October 25, 2013

XC Strong at Bancroft in San Leandro

On Wednesday, for the first time since our program began, PMS in a regular season meet hosted by a school in the Southern Alameda Country League, Bancroft Middle in San Leandro. This is part of a trial effort this year to compete with schools in different leagues to allow our runners a variety of opportunities at different venues. Our runners did extremely well in the meet and enjoyed running on a flat surface and fast course with the only obstacle a hay bale to jump over.


In the 6th grade girls race, a very talented group of runners from Canyon Middle took the top places but we did place two runners in the top 10, Maria Delrosario-Chan in 6th place with a time of 6:51 and Marta Symkowick in 7th place and a time of 6:52. Also, running a good race was Sophia Zalewiski in 13th place, 7:07, and right behind her in 15th place was Zazie Huml in 7:11, and Kaia Kim in 16th place and a time of 7:12. We had one other runner finish in the top 20, Samantha Castro was 19th in a time of 7:22. A total of 12 - 6th grade Piedmont girls competed in the meet. Again, I apologize for not being able to specifically name every Piedmont runner who took part in the meet. Full results are available on our website: http://www.pmscc.com/meet-results




For the boys, Piedmont 6th grade boys also had two runners in the top 10, Colby Brookfield in 8th place and a time of 6:36 and Kihiro Lambert in the same time (a photo finish) with a 9th place overall. They were closely followed by Bruno Bridger in 13th place and a time of 6:44. Our 4th team finisher was Ben Nicolas in 28th place and a time of 7:19 and 5th team finisher was Matthew Sprague in 31st place and his time was 7:27. There were also 12 - 6th grade boys in the race and it was a beautiful Fall day to be doing a cross country race. Note, since this was a new course, our first place team finishers, are automatically the PMS school course record-holders for this venue.


In the 7thgrade girls’ race, Piedmont placed 5 runners in the top 10 with Margo Donahue leading the way in first place and a time of 5:59 for one mile. She was one of the few girls in the short history of this meet to break 6:00 minutes for this distance and led the race from the beginning. In 5th place was Elie Cole, who has been a consistent top 10 finisher in a time of 6:27, and right behind her in 6th place was Frannie Lahey-Teare in 6:39. Running in her first race of the season and coming back strong was Naomi Hollinger in 8thplace and a time of 6:46. Our fifth team finisher was Veda Skatter in 10th place and a very fine time of 6:54


In the 7thgrade boys’ race, and running in his first race of the season, Ethan Argue demonstrated his potential as a runner, by surprising the field and winning the race in a time of 5:45. In fact, he was just 7 seconds off the course record of 5:36 and led almost the entire race. Piedmont had seven runners in the top 13. Finishing in 4th place was Aiden Dixon in 6:08, Andrew Stoddard in 6thplace in 6:10, Dylan Thayer in 7th place in 6:13, Ryan Fitzgerald in 8th place and 6:16, Max Rivera in 10th place with a time of 6:28, and Luke Anderson in 13th place and a time of 6:41


The next to last race was 8th grade girls and again Piedmont fielded a very strong group of runners with Ellie Coleman pulling away and opening a gap at the end, with a winning time of 5:54. She was the only 8th grade girl to break 6 minutes in this race and again joined a very elite group of girls to run under 6 minutes. Piedmont runners also took places 6 through 10, with Georgie Please in 6:24, Sofia Barker in 6:26, Eva Hunter in 6:27, and Minnie Cooper in 6:47 respectively. In addition, Rose Eisenbach had a top 20 placing in 15th with a time of 6:56.





The final race of the day was 8th grade boys, and we had three boys finish in the top 13. In 8th place and continuing his season long strong performance was Toby Fischer in 8thplace and a time of 6:12. Also, running well and showing good team work were Walter Teitelbaum and Reece Proctor in 12th and 13th place respectively in the same time of 6:17

Thanks to Roberto Castro, pictures from the meet can be found at this link, 6th grade races are at the beginning of the album: https://picasaweb.google.com/104706450003770247974/Bancroft101613?authkey=Gv1sRgCPPNtNq7vtXJigE&feat=email#

Sunday, October 20, 2013

7th grade Scots football defeats Helms

A huge and very athletic Helms Middle School flag football team from San Pablo showed up to Coaches Field Thursday looking very much capable of, and intent on, handing the Highlanders their 4th consecutive loss. The boys from PMS, however, had other ideas.  In spite of going against a line that ranged from 200 to 240 lbs, and against a very fast and accurate quarterback who stood at least 6', and weighed 190 from Helms, PMS simply played big and won going away.  

A combination of short yardage runs, intermediate passes, and one bomb to (#3) from (QB), kept Helms playing catch up all day.  Runs like the one seen here by (#24) were the meat and potatoes of the PMS offense scheme.  


On defense, physics were defied as a clearly outclassed and hugely outweighed PMS line outwitted the bigger, stronger and frankly more ferocious Helms' rushing attack. Sacks were few and, given plenty of time to run its offense, the Highlanders landed their first victory 24 -12.

(front) Patrick Conn, Connor Gillikin, Darryl Tjogas, Ethan DiRienzo, Ren Whitney
(back) Henry Cooper, Coach Flores, Carvel Tefft, Zachary Pine, Rex Peters, Ben Williamson


Monday, October 14, 2013

8th Grade Scots Volleyball Beats Orinda and Willard

9/30 vs Orinda

Scots win in two straight games: 25-22 and 26-24.

The Scots are a steadily improving team who had almost all their players (8 of 9) for the first time in several weeks. They showed toughness as they held off Orinda in two close games. Consistent play and contributions from the whole team were the order of the day, with clutch serves from Gabby Brown and Lian Call  completing the win.


10/3 vs Willard

The Scots won 25-19 and 25-13. Strong play from Brina Bodnar, Casey Kama and Ruby Perkins led the Scots team effort to a convincing match win over Willard.

Piedmont XC Strong in Orinda on New Course

The course at Orinda was significantly different from previous years, with the kids running on the hillside. 
 
On the 7 & 8th grade side, it was another impressive showing for the girls team across the board as Piedmont placed 6 girls in the top 10, and had a total of 20 girls in the race. Finishing in 2nd place and giving the winner a very close race was Erin Hong in a new 7thgrade girls record for the Orinda location is a time of 7:57. In 3rdplace was 7th grader Margo Donahue in a time of 8:12 and she was closely followed by Ellie Coleman, 8th grader, in 5thplace and a time of 8:23. Rounding out top ten finishers for Piedmont were Clarissa Lam for 6th place and a time of 8:28, Elie Cole in 7th place and a time of 8:32, and then Eva Hunter in 10th place and a time of 8:44. I would also like to mention Lily Kevilled who finished in 15th place and a time of 9:04 and Cece Garofoli in 19th place and a time of 9:11.


On the 7 & 8th grade boys side, our first finisher in the combined standings was 8th grader Toby Fischer in 11th place and a time of 8:02. Our other top five finishers were all 7th graders with Ryan Fitzgerald coming in 15th place in a time of 8:08, also credited with the same time in 16th place was Aiden Dixon. Rounding out the Piedmont top five runners was Mitch Curtis in 24th place, 8:23 and Dylan Thayer in an identical time and 25th place. A total of 13 - 7& 8th grade boys ran in the meet.





The placings for the 6th graders who took part are below with the finish in parenthesis:

6th grade Boys
Josh Berg (5)
Jayden Lee (8)
Kihiro Lambert (18)
Benji Kostroun (30)
Bruno Bridger (31)
Cutter Mitchell (39)
Alan Rossi (74)
Tamir Menahemy (87)
Burke St Claire (89)
6th grade Girls
Maggie Black (4)
Sophia Zalewski (9)
Kaia Kim ( 17)
Samantha Castro (19)
Emma Paterson ( 37)
Willow Faust (38)
Adrienne Chan (42)


A few pictures from the meet can be found at this link:

Complete results: http://www.pmscc.com/meet-results
 

7th Grade Highlanders roll over Orinda 33-0


Led by stout defense, the Highlanders put it all together in its 33-0 win at Orinda.  Early in the game, Lucas Derr had one of his two Pick 6s to get the Highlanders off to an 8-0 start.  Later in the Q1 Marshall Petty ran a read option, pitched to Will Kalmbach for a big gain, followed by a TD pass to Andrew Jiang.
Later in the half, the Highlanders continued their swarming D with 3 sacks by Clay Stern and Dylan Han.

The offensive line of protected QB Marshall throughout the day, not allowing a sack, and allowing the Highlanders plenty of room for the run.
 
Marshall topped off the half with a QB sneak for a TD, putting the Highlanders up 21-0 at the half.

The second half started in style with another pick-6 by Lucas Derr, as well as two sacks by Clay backing up Orinda's offense.   Will closed out the scoring with an interception, followed by a TD on a read option.  The final score, 33-0 Highlanders.

Monday, October 7, 2013

7th grade Highlanders Battle to a Draw with Longfellow

The Highlanders started the game strongly with Clay Stern sacking opposing quarterback for 3 yard loss.  

Solid offensive line by Carson Gilliland and Aidan Dixon protected the QB Marshall Petty. 

Andrew Jiang showed strong running skills by cutting through the defense for 12 yards for a first down.

Smart blocking skill by Josh Rogers aided the run. Despite solid Highlander teamwork and momentum,

Longfellow scored a touch down in second quarter. Highlights in 3rd: deflecting Longfellow passing game.  Clay Stern sacking QB sweep plays. 

The Highlanders caught fire in the 4th quarter with Marshall Petty’s 10 yard breaking through Longfellow defense. Lucas Derr excited his Highlanders team mates and spectators with his reverse play. Continuing the momentum, Dylan Han caught 15 yard passing play in the end zone for touchdown. Will Kalmbach’s 2 point conversion tied this exciting game.

Final Highlanders 8, Longfellow 8 final.


(Picture: Receiver Dylan Han with Josh Rogers, Clay Stern, Aidan Dixon and Lucas Derr. QB Marshall

Petty is in back.)

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Cross Country results for El Cerrito and Moraga

Cross Country Results - Week of October 3

On Monday September 30, all grade levels competed in a meet at the Moraga Country Club. For Monday’s meet the team rented a bus to take the kids to Moraga. The bus was pretty packed and I think the kid’s enjoyed the experience. Monday’s venue was unique in that it was held at a golf course. Space does not allow me to name all the Piedmont kids who ran in the race, but complete results through the Moraga meet can be found at: http://www.pmscc.com/meet-results


In the first race of the day, 6thgrade boys, we had three kids among the top 20 with Josh Berg, Kihiro Lambert and Colby Brookfield finishing in 12th,13th and 17thplaces respectively. Rounding out our top five finishers in the race were Cutter Mitchell in 25th and Matthew Sprague in 29thplace.

For the 6th grade girls we had two girls in the top 10, Maggie Black in 4th place and Sophia Zalewski in 6th places, very solid performances by both young ladies. Our next finisher was Samantha Castro, 22nd place, followed by Kelly Mitchell in 28th and Sophia Loucks in 45thplace. 

Thanks to parent Roberto Castro, here is a link to some photos from the meet:


In the 7 & 8th grade boys race, Lorand Cheng continued his fine season with a 4th place finish overall and a new 7thgrade PMS course record of 8:11.1. Next was 8th grader Vincent Titterton in 9th place and a time of 8:26.6. The third PMS finisher across the line was Toby Fischer in 11th place in 8:31.4, followed by Walter Teitelbaum in 13th place and a time of 8:35.6. Our fifth finisher was Dylan Thayer in 19thplace and a time of 8:46.9.
On the ladies side, our 7&8th grade girls had another strong showing and a new 7th grade PMS course record for Erin Hong in 1stplace overall and a time of 8:21.7. This was her 3rd course record in as many tries. Piedmont girls also garnered 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 10th places with Clarissa Lam, Ellie Coleman, Elie Cole, and Eva Hunter respectively. This is outstanding team depth and I would be remiss if I did not also mention Sophia Barker in 13th place, Minnie Cooper in 19thplace and Lily Keville in 20th.


On Thursday October 3,a small group of 6th graders ran in a meet in El Cerrito. Some say this course has a certain charm, and harkens back to the early days of our league. Anyhow, “official results” are not yet available; when they are they will be posted on our website. 




The report by Minori Tsuge is as follows:

6th grade girls:

(1) Josie Gross-Whitaker

(3) Maria Delrosario-chan

(4) Jihae Oh

(5) Fiona Hunter

(11) Alshley Nelson

(16) Samantha Castro

(18) Maura Cowan

(20) Kaia Kim

(28) Abby Wheeler


6th grade boys:

(8) Jayden Lee

(11) Max Podell

(27) Durant Fuller

(28) Benji Kostroun

(48) Mathew Sprague


They all ran very hard. Josie was leading at the start. She got passed on the first loop but I kept telling her to keep her in site and get her rhythm. At the very last loop I told her to focus on the couple of up hills and try not to let the gap grow and take full advantage of the downhill, especially the very last one. Sure enough, she made her move at that last down behind the bleachers and took the lead and down the chute. Maria was solo 3rd and kept her position throughout the entire race.


Fiona and Jihae worked with each other and passed a few girls in the end to capture 4th& 5th. They were neck and neck with each other. All girls ran a very good race. Ashley Nelson ran a solid race and finished in 11th place.


As for the boys, Jayden hung in there and pretty much kept his position throughout the race. Max was very even and ran solid, and his down the chute sprint was very memorable. He passed the boy in front of him right at the very end. Durant really tried hard, even though he kept telling me that his throat hurt and said he walked a little, which I did not witness. Benji ran a solid pace race. Mathew was trying very hard and I was very proud to see his efforts.


All in all, they showed some great sprints down the shoot and successfully passed kids in front of them.

Here is the link to photos from the meet:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104706450003770247974/ElCerrito10313?authkey=Gv1sRgCNL8ktei2Ly_Ew&feat=email#slideshow/5930776032754666450

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

7th grade Scots Football Strong in Loss to Stanley

The Scots 7th grade flag football team played at Stanley on Tuesday afternoon (Sept 24th). There were several strong defensive plays by Carvel Tefft, including several completed passes. Henry Cooper played quarterback and had two sneaks, one for the extra point.

 
Connor Gillikin had a great game, including an interception and several successful running plays.  Rex Peters played a strong offensive line. Patrick Conn, Zachary Pine, Ethan DiRienzo, and Darryl Tjogas all played good defense. Ben Williamson blocked a long pass by Stanley. Although the Scots lost 7-14, their first game was played well.

PMS Cross Country Team Opens 2013 Season

The PMS cross country team opened up their 2013 seaon, the same way they closed last year with some impressive performances. This is the eighth year for this program sponsored by the Piedmont Recreation Department and the 2012 team was not only the largest in terms of participants, 110, but also captured the most league championship titles of any school with three team championships. This year's team is equal in size, and based on the first two meets of the season could be a contender in several categories. 
 
On September 23, the team ventured to Golden Gate Field in Albany for their first meet of the season with 60 runners in 6th, 7th & 8th grades. The highlight of the meet was the girls 7&8th grade race of 2000 meters as the 2012 league individual winner from Albany Middle faced off with 7th grader Erin Hong from Piedmont. The first 3 girls finished within 2 seconds of each other. 7th grader Erin Hong was just behind the leader from Albany and her time of 6:49.6 is a new school record for GGF. In fact she is the first Piedmont girl, 7 or 8th grader to break the 7 minute barrier at this course. Our next placer was Margo Donahue in 6th place (this was her first cross country race), and a time of 7:12.6 and following her was Elie Cole in 8thplace with a time of 7: 20.9. In the 7&8th grade boys race, our first finisher in 6th place was 7th grader Lorand Cheng in a time of 6:45.2. This broke the 7th grade boys PMS record for GGF. Finally, in the 6th grade girls race, Piedmont placed one runner in the top 10 with Maggie Black placing 5th in a time of 6:44 for the 1 mile distance. 
 
On Thursday, September 26, Piedmont hosted its annual "home" meet at Temescal Park in Oakland. This was the largest meet in league history with 545 runners from 20 schools with the biggest contingent from Piedmont with 90 runners. In the first race of the day, 6th grade girls, Piedmont had the first 5 finishers in the race and placed 6 runners in the top 10. In cross country a perfect score is “15” and if the meet had been scored that’s what we would have achieved. Josie Gross-Whitaker led the way in a new Piedmont 6th grade girl’s course record of 7:26.5. The old record of 7:29, dates to 2006, the first year of the program. In 2ndplace was Fiona Hunter in 7:34.7, 3rd place was Maggie Black in 7:38.4, followed by Maria Del Rosario-Chan in 7:42.6 , and 5th place was Jihae Oh in the same time as Maria. Our 6th runner in the top 10 was 9th place Zazie Huml in 8:07.2.  
 
 
In the 6th grade boys race, we had a total of 16 boys take part. In an exciting race down to the wire, Josh Berg from Piedmont finished in 2nd place with a time of 7:13.5, only 5 seconds behind the first place runner. Our other top ten finisher was Max Podell in a time of 7:37.1 fro 10th place. The 7&8th grade race saw another outstanding performance with six Piedmont girls in the top 10. The first place finisher overall was Erin Hong with another school course record in a time of 7:21.1. Coming in 4th place overall in her first cross country race was Clarissa Lam with a time of 7:34.1 and right behind her in 5th place was Margo Donahue 7:35.3. 7th place overall was Ellie Coleman in 7:56.1, and following her in 9th place was Isa Harrison 8:05.5 and Georgie Pease with a 10th place finish and 8:05.9. The last race was 7&8th grade boys and Piedmont had a solid showing our first finisher overall was in 11th place for Vincent Titterton and a time of 7:33.6 , followed in 12thplace Andrew Stoddard in 7:33.7. Then Piedmont runners finished 14ththrough 16th places, respectively it was Aidan Dixon in 7:35.1, Toby Fischer in 7:35.3, and Ryan Fitzgerald in 7:36.2. 
 
 

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

7th Grade Scots Volleyball Beats Orinda Intermediate in Two

The 7th grade Scots beat Orinda on Monday in 2 games. Scores were 22-25 and 13-25.



Chloe Kamber scored 13 serving points in a row in the second game, while Erin Sturdivant and Kylie Heller consistently returned the ball to score. Lani Shea, Lauren Young, Abby Post, and Alexa Carera were also great serving contributors to the game.