GHS boys cross country team threatens before falling short to
Acorns
GILROY – The Gilroy High boys cross country team came within inches of winning their first meet in three years against Live Oak – but the Mustang runners were cut short by a slim 27-29 margin.
Monday’s meet came down to a lean as Gilroy sophomore Arnulfo Velasquez and Live Oak’s Billy Wong ran neck-and-neck to the finish line. The lean went the to the visitors though, as Wong stretched for a tight victory over Velasquez. Had that lean gone the other way, Gilroy would have won the meet.
“It was a good day for the boys,” Mustang head coach Wayne Scott said. “We clearly surprised Live Oak. I think that they took us a little lightly and we nearly snuck up on them. Had any of our runners beat one other Live Oak runner, we would have won the meet. That is almost as close as you can get.”
Velasquez – who qualified for the section meet as a freshman last season – finished with the same time as Wong at 18:10. But the promising young runner settled for a second-place finish.
“Arnulfo is better than he was last year and is ready to do the work that it takes to get even better,” Scott said. “This is going to be a very interesting year for him. He came close to beating a very good runner today. The rest of the year is up to him.”
Two other runners who made the day interesting for Gilroy were freshmen Humberto Pineda and Jose Velasquez. While Pineda finished in third place with a time of 19 minutes flat, J. Velasquez placed ninth with a time of 20:10.
“When the your number two and five runners for your varsity team are freshmen, you’re going to sneak up on some people early in the year,” Scott said. “That contributed to our close race today. These guys came out of no where as far as Live Oak was concerned. They ran a great race for their first time out.”
Seniors Nate Barmore – who crossed the finish line in 19:41 for seventh place – and Steven Bennett – who wasn’t far behind in 19:47 for eight place – also contributed as well.
“The senior leadership has helped,” Scott said. “Nate Barmore and Steven Bennett have been solid runners the last two years and are running better than they did last year. The experience is nice to have on the team.”
Also finishing for the Mustangs were Darrin Amerson in 20:22 and Allan Chan in 20:46.
In the girls race, Gilroy had no runners. Cobbie Jones of Live Oak finished the course in 21:31.
In the JV boys race, Jacob Trujillo of Gilroy finished first in 20:47. Cliff Uchida of Gilroy finished fifth in 24:13. Phillip Higgins was eighth in 28:34. Since Gilroy did not field a complete team, Live Oak won by forfeit.
Name Team Time
Billy Wong LO 18:10
Arnulfo Valesquez G 18:10
Humberto Pineda G 19:00
Jesus Atanacio LO 19:38
Brent Hatakeyama LO 19:38
Jonathan Kamei LO 19:40
Nate Barmore G 19:41
Steven Bennett G 19:47
Jose Velasquez G 20:10
Darrin Amerson G 20:22
Kenny Benner LO 20:32
Allan Chan G 20:46
Team Scores
Live Oak 27
Gilroy 29
