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M-A junior Grant Bennitt runs in the Central Coast Section Division I boys’ cross-country finals with a bloodied knee after falling early in the race. Bennitt went on to finish 21st out of 100 runners and clinch the first CCS team championship in program history for the Bears.
It didn’t come together the way Menlo-Atherton expected but, in the end, the Bears ran their way to the first Central Coast Section championship in boys’ cross country program history.
M-A ran in the morning hours on the 2.95-mile Crystal Springs Cross Country Course, and overcame a horrendous fall by junior Grant Bennitt to claim the CCS Division I team championship. Senior Aidan Sharp was the team’s top finisher in 14 minutes, 58 seconds, taking second place in the field of 100 runners, to lead M-A to 51 points, topping second-place Bellarmine’s score of 55.
Bellarmine senior Stephen Sziebert claimed the Division I individual championship in 14:55.8.
“I thought he was going to be able to catch him,” M-A head coach Eric Wilmurt said, “but the Bellarmine kid had just enough to keep him off. And congratulations to him.”
The spotlight of the race was on Bennitt’s 21st place finish, though. On paper, Bennitt’s 15:53.8 was an underwhelming time, after two weeks ago running a personal record 15:44.7 on the same course in the Peninsula Athletic League championships. However, it was one of the fastest races Bennitt has ever run, Wilmurt said, after the senior took a nasty fall in the early going of the race.
“Grant Bennitt gets knocked down in the downhill portion of the first part of the race ... he’s going downhill and he gets hit from behind ... and gets back up and runs probably the gutsiest race I’ve seen ever,” Wilmurt said.
With the top five placers deciding the overall team score, Bennitt — with his hands and knees all scraped up from the fall — was the fifth finisher on M-A’s card.
“He’s one of our best runners,” Wilmurt said. “I was really excited to see what he was going to be able to do that day, and he literally did that. ... To be able to get up and finish the race that fast, that’s more impressive than any time he could have produced that day.”
M-A senior Cason Mitchell took fourth in 15:06.8; senior Evan Chopra placed eighth in 15:18.5; and junior Ben Salceda took 16th in 15:45. M-A’s sixth-place finisher was senior Brady Phan at 23rd in 16:00.2. On paper, Phan’s 23rd place performance would have still clinched the team crown for M-A had Bennitt finished lower, or not finished at all.
“Who knows what would have happen?” Wilmurt said. “If Grant’s not in that race, how good do Brady and Grant run together at that point? So, who knows what would have happened?”
With the title, the M-A boys earn an automatic bid to the CIF State Championship, slated for Saturday, Nov. 29, at Woodward Park in Fresno. It is the first trip to the state meet the history of the M-A boys’ program, though the core of the team was around in 2023 when the M-A girls earned a bid to Fresno.
“Watching the girls do so well for a number of years really lit a fire under the boys,” Wilmurt said.
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The M-A girls also earned an auto bid to the state meet, taking second place in the Division I race. Los Altos won the Division I team title, while Evergreen Valley was third and Carlmont fourth.
Sophomore Caroline Pflaum paced the Bears with a sixth-place finish in 18:21.6.
Carlmont senior Daniela Cuadros won the Division I individual championship in 17:49.8.
Banner day for PAL
The PAL boasted two other championships at the daylong cross-country meet.
In the Division III girls’ race, Burlingame senior Stella Newman won the individual championship in 18:22.9. The Panthers took third place in the team element, while finishing 1-2 in the individual race. Burlingame junior Elizabeth Carroll took second place in 18:24.5
In the Division IV boys’ race, Mills claimed the team championship, paced by sophomore Patrick Jahutka’s seventh-place finish in 16:10. Half Moon Bay junior Alex Sukhorukov took second place in 15:57.3, while El Camino junior Dylan Bullentini took fourth in 16:01.
WBAL dominates Division V
The Crystal girls swept the girls’ team and individual championships in the Division V race. All five of Crystal’s runners placed in the top 10, with senior Anna Salter taking home the individual title in 17:41.7. Senior Kira Dye (18:15) took second, senior Heidy Avina (19:12.6) seventh; junior Allie Willis (19:18) eighth; and sophomore Sophia Cervantes (19:38.6) 10th.
Menlo senior Ariya Kaushek (18:50) took fourth in girls’ Division V, while Nueva senior Julia Schlamp (19:31.6) placed ninth.
In the Division V boys’ race, Nueva senior Ryan Fitzpatrick took the individual championship in 14:53.8.
Menlo claimed the Division V boys’ team championship, paced by junior Henry Hauser’s second-place finish in 15:06.4, while sophomore Oliver Olbekson (15:45.9) placed fourth, and senior Amay Srinivasan (15:55.5) placed fifth.
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