The Gilroy girls cross-country team, in the end, was this close.
Needing a top-two finish at the Central Coast Section Cross Country
Championships to advance to state, the Mustangs tied for second
with Salinas, but lost the tiebreaker.
Andrew Matheson – Staff Writer
Belmont
The Gilroy girls cross-country team, in the end, was this close.
Needing a top-two finish at the Central Coast Section Cross Country Championships to advance to state, the Mustangs tied for second with Salinas, but lost the tiebreaker.
After Carlmont ran away with a 39-point first-place finish Saturday at Crystal Springs in Belmont, both Salinas and Gilroy sat with 83 points each. Unfortunately for the Mustangs, the tiebreaker was the sixth-place runner, and Salinas had the edge.
“They had a fantastic season,” GHS Coach Cathy Silva said. “They were TCAL champions for the first time in 22 years. They gave it everything they possibly had, and that’s all you can ask of them.
“There isn’t one of them that didn’t put their heart and soul into this race. They should be holding their heads up high.”
As a silver lining, junior Kathleen Miller finished second overall in the girls Division I race in 18:09, and will attend next week’s CIF Cross-Country State Championships in Fresno.
Miller finished five seconds behind Carlmont’s Justine Fedronic (18:04).
“It was pretty amazing. I mean, it took a complete team effort,” Miller said of the second-place finish for the Mustangs. “Every girl tried her hardest … We’re just going to move on past it and be proud. We’re actually ranked now, which is just amazing.”
Miller’s time was a full minute better than last year’s CCS meet, according to Silva, and more than a minute better than her 19:19 at the Tri-County Athletic League meet at Toro Park in Salinas on Oct. 27.
In fact, while Miller took second overall, all seven Mustang runners finished under 22:01, a feat no other team could say, not even Salinas.
“We have a young team,” said Silva of the Mustangs, who only have one senior in Kristina Schmidt. “We’ve still got a couple more years to keep working and they’ll keep improving … We have a lot to build with.”
Sophomore Jessica Hopf, for instance, clocked a 19:08 to finish 11th overall. She missed a state berth by one spot and six seconds.
“That’s phenomenal for a sophomore,” Silva said. “There’s so much hope and so much talent and so much heart on the team that the next couple of years are going to be very exciting.”
Rounding out the Gilroy girls, Paty Hernandez ran a 19:50 (16th overall), Brandi Rodriguez finished in 20:21 (21st), Anne Donahoe crossed in 20:57 (33rd), Christine Bobula ran in 21:37 (54th) and senior Kristina Schmidt finished in 22:01 (59th).
“We’re going to miss our leader, our team captain Kristina (Schmidt), because she’s the glue of the team,” Silva said. “So we need someone to step up and take over that spot …”
Derek Pesta led the Gilroy boys in 16:28 (20th overall) Saturday, while the Mustangs finished in eighth place with 224 points, just one spot behind TCAL champion San Benito (217 points).
Carlmont wound up with the top spot in the boys race with 46 points and Bellarmine took second with 68 points. Alisal’s Diego Estrada took first individually by 27 seconds in 15:18.
After Pesta, a pair of underclassmen in freshmen Timothy Williams (17:05) and sophomore Juan Velasquez (17:13) finished in 41st and 44th, respectively.
“We have a strong future in the boys,” said Silva, whose frosh/soph boys took second in league. “That’s your future right there. We’ve never had so many boys running in the 17s and 18s before.
“Four of our guys on the team this year were seniors, and we’re going to miss them.”
Senior Agustin Serafio finished in 17:35 (55th overall), Matt Sosa clocked 17:54 (64th), Henry Phan crossed in 18:13 (73rd) and Uriel Garcia finished in 18:20 (77th).
Kathleen Miller was the lone state qualifier for Gilroy, and she’ll compete at the CIF State Cross Country Championships on Nov. 24 at Woodward Park in Fresno.
