Willow Glen Resident

Sports

Rams ramble to league titles, ready to run at CCS meet

By Dick Sparrer

It's two down and one to go for the boys and girls cross country teams at Willow Glen High School as they figure to be in the running for team championships when the best runners in the Central Coast Section converge on Toro Park in Salinas on Nov. 11 for the CCS finals.

Willow Glen started things off right by posting perfect 7-0 records to run to dual meet championships in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League, and the Rams backed that up by winning team titles at the BVAL finals held Oct. 30 at Crystal Springs in Belmont.

The Willow Glen boys ran up a low 43 points to finish well ahead of runner-up Santa Teresa (86) in the race for the boys title in the BVAL run on the day before Halloween.

Junior Mohamed Abdalla and senior Marcos Corona finished one-two at the league finals. Abdalla covered the 2.93-mile distance in 14:54 to finish 40 seconds ahead of Corona, who was second in 15:34.

Willow Glen ended up with four runners in the top at the league meet. Junior Eyuel Galato raced to a fourth in 16:22 with Samson Galato eighth in the 16:40.

Sophomore Abdul Kamara rounded out the top five for the Rams, nailing 28th in 17:23. Junior Danny Owens was 58th in 18:11 and soph Natie Wolde was 61st in 18:18.

The Willow Glen girls had a little tougher time, but still managed to cruise to the team title at the league meet. The Rams finished with a low 70 team points and Evergreen Valley ran a pretty close second at 87.

Junior Kari Server was the top finisher for the Rams, running eighth in 19:31. Senior Nancy Velazquez was ninth in 19:43 with juniors Michelle Moran (15th in 20:12), Hayley Tharp (21st in 20:31) and Jaclyn Anderson (22nd in 20:32) rounding out a tight pack for Willow Glen.

Freshman Kristina Rivera was 37th in 21:31 with senior Sandra Sosa 56th in 22:22.

Willow Glen also won the boys frosh-soph crown at the league meet, running up a low 29 points to 46 for Evergreen.

Cristian Vargas finished first overall in 17:37 with Ahmed Yusuf second, Valentino Julien sixth, John Ladd seventh and Ivan Oseguera 14th.

In the girls junior varsity division, Willow Glen's Maria Loya was sixth in 22:28 to lead the Rams to a team third behind Evergreen Valley and Leland. Elizabeth Munoz was 11th in 23:22.