Photograph by Franchesca Esquibel
Saratoga's Justin Lerman (left) races for the ball with Monta Vista's Eugene Rudenko in water polo action last week. The Matadors outlasted the Falcons 16-7 in the game.
Jacob Christopherson romps to fifth
Saratoga girls win, boys fall in polo
By Dick Sparrer
Jacob Christopherson of Saratoga is a front-runner.
That's not to say that he's jumping on the bandwagon to claim to be a backer of the New York Yankees for St. Louis Rams just because they are currently doing quite well.
No, it has nothing to do with Christopherson's affiliation as a sports fan. But it has everything to do with his performance as a high school cross-country runner.
Christopherson is a front-runner on the cross country course, and he proved it again last week when he covered the 2.95-mile course at Crystal Springs in Belmont to finish fifth overall in the Crystal Springs Center Meet.
Christopherson covered the distance in 16:15.8 to nail his spot in the top 10 and lead the Falcons to a team fifth behind Burlingame, Los Altos, Milpitas and Half Moon Bay.
The Saratoga senior finished fifth with teammates David La 24th in 17:17.2, Brett Stanger 29th in 17:30.5, Richard La 35th in 17:47.7 and Donald Prolo 36th in 17:49.6.
Joshua Miner of Prospect was 40th in 17:55.6.
Megumi Takahashi of Monta Vista was the top local finisher in the girls varsity division.
Joanna Burgess of Saratoga finished 21st in 21:29.4.
Lynbrook did well in the lower divisions at the meet.
Jeff Whitsett and Chris Deal finished one-two in the boys junior varsity division. Whitsett covered the course in 17:06.3 for the win and Deal was second in 17:35.7.
Eugene Berson was fifth with Ryan Deal seventh, Chad Smith 14th and Daiki Kuwahara 15th.
Francine Lee was third in 21:45.9 to lead the Vikings to a solid finish in the girls junior varsity race. Sasoon Kim was ninth with Hyan Kim 11th, Stephanie Claussen 12th and Evan Smith 14th.
Lynbrook's Morgan Katz was 20th and Jason Whitsett 22nd in the boys freshman race.
A week earlier on the 2.25-mile course at the Artichoke Invitational at Half Moon Bay, teams from Saratoga, Lynbrook, Fremont, Cupertino and Monta Vista all turned in solid performances.
The Falcons finished seventh in the boys varsity division and 12th in the girls class running in the small school division at the meet.
Prolo led the Saratoga charge by finishing 25th in 13:09. D. La was 29th in 13:14 with R. La 36th, Stanger 39th and Justin Gardner 76th.
In the large school division, Lynbrook's J. Whitsett finished in a strong 12:49 to claim 31th overall and lead the Vikings to 17th in the team standings.
Westmont's Kevin Willis was 62nd in 13:21.
In the girls small school division, Saratoga finished 12th overall behind Burgess and her 51st-place finish in 16:35. Dernie Wang was 62nd with Carol Liu 73rd.
In other action, Saratoga finished seventh in the boys freshman division with Steven Surrette nailing 14th in 14:50, Aaron Blair 48th and Michael Lin 49th.
In the large school division, Westmont nailed sixth place as a freshman boys team. Andrew Tupper was 28th in 15:09 with Chris Marsuland 39th, Yuta Nakata 48th and Brian Almeida 63rd.
Jacob Osborne was 20th in 14:12 to lead the Saratoga boys frosh-soph to a team 10th. Daniel Yang was 32nd with Jeremy Nelson 73rd, Ricky Lin 75th and Lawrence Hui 76th.
In the large school division, Lynbrook's Berson was 22nd in 13:37 with Westmont's Anthony Salazar 47th in 14:11.
The Saratoga boys were sixth as a team in the junior varsity division with Devin Lui 33th in 15:19, Randy Scialabba 34th and Steven Goldsworthy 35th.
In the large school division, Casey Courtney was 34th in 14:51 to lead Lynbrook to 12th.
AnneMarie Apple was 25th in 18:19 with Priya Talreja 29th and Stephanie Morrison 41st for Saratoga in the girls junior varsity division.
Saratoga's Jackie Molzon was 47th in 18:17 with Sunita Kumar 87th in the girls frosh-soph race.
In the large school division, Lynbrook and Monta Vista finished among the top teams.
Lee was 10th in 16:13 to lead the Vikings to a team fourth in the girls frosh-soph large school division. S. Kim supported by finishing 16th in 16:48 with Kate Bossange 22nd, H. Kim 27th and Smith 34th.
Westmont freshman Jessie Heusser was 37th in the division in 17:45 with Schafer Trisa 52nd.
Falcons flood Cats
The Saratoga girls water polo team flooded Los Gatos 14-3 last week in a nonleague game.
Courtney Crase poured in five goals to lead the Falcons to the lopsided victory.
Courtney Hopkins, Sarah Oberhauser and Lauren Van Hoesen drilled two goals each in the Sararoga win. Claire Koen, Heide Cruikshank and Rebecca Hartsfield also scored for the winner.
The Falcons opened up a 5-0 lead before the half, then outscored Gatos 6-2 in the third quarter to viturally lock up the win.
In other action last week, Jason Gribi tossed in three goals and Chris Petri, Matthew Azzi, Justin Lerman and David Lord added one each, but the Saratoga boys water polo team dropped a 16-7 decision to Monta Vista last week.
The loss left the Falcons winless in four games in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
Tennis Wins
Belinda Rungsea and Laura Lin each won in singles to lead their squads to victories in girls tennis play last week.
Rungsea won 6-2, 6-0 at No. 1 singles to spark Lynbrook to a 5-2 win over Milpitas. The Vikings improved to 9-0 in the De Anza Division with the win.
Lin posted a 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 3 singles to help the Falcons pull out a 4-3 win over Monta Vista. The Falcons are 7-1 in the De Anza Division and 14-1 for the year.
Falcons tie SI
The Saratoga girls field hockey team battled St. Ignatius to a 2-2 tie in a nonleague game last week. The tie stretched Saratoga's season record to a solid 4-2-1.
Falcons fall
The Saratoga girls volleyball team lost a pair of matches last week in the De Anza Division of the SCVAL.
The Falcons lost 15-9, 15-9, 15-7 to Homestead, then dropped a tough 12-15, 15-12, 13-15, 15-11, 15-13 decision to Gunn.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
