Busy week of cross country championships

Cason held off San Mateo’s Andrew Song by six seconds, with Song coming in with a 15:57.4. M-A’s Thomas Bernadicou was third in a time of 16:01.5 and Dane Hansen seventh with a time of 16:23.8 as the Bears’ team cruised past runner-up San Mateo, 45-66. Carlmont was third as team with 85 points.

San Mateo had two runners finish in the top-10, with James Ely joining Song. Ely finished fourth in a time of 16:15.5. Rounding out the top-10 were: Dylan Bullentini of El Camino (5th, 16:20.5); Carlmont’s Ian Wong (6th, 16:20.7); Edwin Gonzalez of South City (8th, 16:27.4); Carlmont’s Landon Schaefer (9th, 16:28.1) and 10th was Sequoia’s Cameron Reynolds (16:28.4).

On the girls’ side, Carlmont held off Mills, 81-88, to earn the team title, but Mills’ Miya Cheng captured the individual championship in a time of 18:17.9, well ahead of second-place finisher Andrea Correa of San Mateo, who came in with a 18:25.7. Hillsdale’s Naia Hsieh was third with an 18:31.7.

Cheng, a senior, steadily moved up finishing spots throughout the season. She finished third during PAL #1 on Westmoor’s 2.7-mile course. She was second at PAL #2, run at Crystal Springs Cross Country Course and was third at PAL #3, run at the 5,000-meter Bedwell Park course.

But she saved her best for last, setting a personal record Saturday.

Rounding out the top-1o were: Burlingame’s Stella Newman (4th, 18:37.2); Daniela Cuardros of Carlmont (5th, 18:45.8); Katie Yee of Mills (6th, 19:22.1); Burlingame’s Elizabeth Carroll (7th, 19:28.9); M-A’s Caroline Pflaum (8th, 19:46.5); Lina Cruz Parada of Aragon (9th, 19:51.4) and Woodside’s Pearl Marsyla (10th, 19:54.4).

The Central Coast Section championship are Nov. 9 at the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course, with nine PAL boys’ teams (Aragon, Capuchino, Carlmont, Hillsdale, Menlo-Atherton, Mills, San Mateo, Sequoia and Oceana) and eight girls’ teams (Aragon, Burlingame, Carlmont, Hillsdale, Menlo-Atherton, Mills, San Mateo and Oceana) qualifying.

Additionally, 13 boys and nine girls qualified individually.

Boys’ qualifiers:

Burlingame — Ryan Liu

Half Moon Bay — Elkin Lopez and Quin McAnerney

South City — Gonzalez, Diego Alas and Daniel Martinez Alvarado

Westmoor — Matthew Chang and Colin Williams

Woodside — Kiefer Schultz and Kai Melosh

Terra Nova — Marcus Balistreri

Girls qualifiers:

Capuchino — Angelina Jensen

El Camin0 — Caitlyn So

Half Moon Bay — Jaymie Matheou and Hazel Schoenstein

Sequoia — Sabine O’Hara

Terra Nova — Claire Sachse

Westmoor — Jasmine Anne Combes

Woodside — Marsyla and Dana Reed

Pretre leads Menlo to WBAL team title

Menlo senior Landon Pretre is nearing the end of a spectacular high school career, winning the West Bay Athletic League individual championship in dominating style Friday.

Pretre covered the 2.95-mile course at the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course in a time of 14:51.0 — more than 20 seconds faster than Crystal’s Benjamin Bouie, who posted a time of 15:12.88.

It was a new personal record for Pretre, who has run only a handful of races this season.

Menlo, which held off Crystal for the team title, had all seven of its runners finish in the top-15, finishing 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th and 13th. There was only two-hundreds of a second separating fourth, fifth and sixth.

Menlo and Crystal took all 10 top-10 spots. Menlo won the team title 23-34 over Crystal.

Pretre and Bouie were the class of the race. Bouie’s teammate, Tarik Baker, finished third well behind the top two. Baker’s time of 15:44.0 was nearly 32 seconds behind Bouie.

Rounding out the top-10 were: Menlo’s William Hauser (4th, 15:54.1), Henry Hauser (5th, 15:54.1), Jared Saal (6th, 15:54.3), Oliver Olbekson (7th, 16:07.3); Crystal’s Conrad Chern (8th, 16:17.7); Menlo’s Amay Srinivasan (9th, 16:37.0) and Cameron Kani of Crystal (10th, 16:39.2).

On the girls’ side, the team results were flipped, with Crystal dominating in winning the team title over Menlo — 36-86.

Crystal’s Anna Salter led the way with a second-place finish in a time of 18:31.8, but it was Castilleja’s Brooke Oliveira who won the individual championship by crusing the field, posting a time of 18:10.8. Sacred Heart Prep’s Sophie Cheung snuck in for a third-place finish in a time of 18:38.9. Menlo’s top runner was Ariya Kaushek, who was fourth in a time of 18:44.0.

Rounding out the top-10: Crystal’s Kira Dye (5th, 18:57.3); Menlo’s Veronica Taira (6th, 19:08.3); Crystal’s Allie Willis (7th, 19:56.7); Harker’s Ava Alvarez (8th, 19:59.0) and Emily Bryan (9th, 20:12.8) and Crystal’s Heidi Avina (10th, 20:21.9).

Nueva dominates PSAL championships

The Nueva School’s boys’ and girls’ cross country teams owned the Private School Athletic League championships at the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course in Belmont Thursday.

The Nueva boys took the top three spots as the Mavericks posted a team score of 29. Latino College Prep was second with 78 points and Design Tech third with 91.

Ryan Fitzpatrick, who has been one of the best in CCS this season, captured the individual title in a time of 15:43.92, leading a 1-2-3 sweep for the Mavericks.

No one was even close to Fitzpatrick’s time. Nueva teammates Teddy Gaillard was second more than a minute behind as he came in with a 16:54.54, while Johnathan Ho was third in a time of 16:57.72. Ashwin Prabhu gave Nueva a fourth top-10 finisher. He took eighth in a time of 18:19.59.

Idan Haimovich was the top finisher for Design Tech, taking 6th with a time of 17:35.92. He was joined by teammate Koh Hirota for another top-10 finish, with Hirota taking 10th in a time of 18:31.50.

Summit Prep’s Douglas Seto was ninth in a time 18:30.32.

The Nueva School girls’ team was even more dominant, with all seven of its runners finishing in the top 10 as the Mavericks beat Design Tech in the team standings, 18-83.

Like the Nueva boys, the Lady Mavericks took the top three spots, with Julia Schlamp winning the individual title with a time of 20:52.13. Natalie Sepulveda was second (21:15.57) and Ainsley Hsu third (21:46.42).

Design Tech finally broke up the Nueva logjam by finishing fourth and fifth. Rotem Haimovich posted a time of 22:00.57 and Genevieve Borba fifth with a time of 22:17.61.

Nueva then took four of the next six spots — Gabby Lou was sixth (22:25.04), Senna Hong was seventh (22.43.32), Lila Pastor came in ninth (23.01.68) and Julia Randolph rounded out the top-10 with a time of 23:07.57.

Serra finishes third in WCAL championships

With five runners in the top 25, the Padres finished third in the team standings at the West Catholic Athletic League championships at Crystal Springs Cross Country Course in Belmont Wednesday.

Bellarmine won the team title with 33 points, easily out-distancing St. Ignatius (74) and Serra (92).

Serra was paced by Zachary Heller and Andrew Little, who finished 15th and 16th, respectively. Heller covered the 2.95-mile course 16:05.24, holding off Little, who finished with a 16:05.91. Jack McGuire was 22nd (16:18.45) and Joseph Bronzini was 24th (16:20.5).