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.

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