Crystal Springs cross country teams named best in the CCS

“I would joke with my assistant coach (Andy Martinez), ‘Next year, we’re going to be pretty good.’ And he said, ‘We’re pretty good right now,’” said Crystal head coach Albert Caruana, who wrapped up his 27th season with the Gryphons’ cross country program.

Caruana expected the boys’ team to be in the mix and led by Benjamin Bouie’s fifth-place finish at the state meet, the Gryphons went out and claimed the Division 5 state championship, holding off, as they had done all season, Menlo School.

“At CCS, we had the fastest team time. At state, we were the fastest CCS team and eighth fastest, overall,” Caruana said. “There was no question my boys were the team of the year (in the CCS).”

The Crystal Springs girls’ team, however, was a bolt out of the blue. A team that had only four runners going into the summer — a team needs at least five runners to post a team score — Caruana said eight freshmen showed up for the start of fall practice.

“You could make the case for Los Altos (to be the CCS Team of the Year),” Caruana said, noting that Los Altos had also won a CCS and state championship as well, and were regarded as one of the top teams in the state.

“When I asked the guy (at Milesplit.com), ‘Are you sure?’ He said, ‘[Los Altos] was really good. Everyone knew they were good. Before the season started, you didn’t even know if would have a full team.’”

While Kaiya Brooks went on to have a dream season individually, winning the CCS and state Division 5 titles, the rest of the team was a work in progress. The Lady Gryphons finished third in the West Bay Athletic League regular-season standings, and first showed signs of peaking at the right time, finishing second at the WBAL championships.

At the CCS race, Crystal’s No. 2 runner Anna Salter, who hadn’t raced in about a month, collapsed about a half mile from the finish line. Yet the Gryphons still managed to clinch the CCS Division 5 crown.

Then came the state meet. The Division 5 race was so close that the Gryphons went from finishing second by a point to winning by two.

“The live-scoring board, it looked like it had stopped and we were in second place by a point. So I went over to congratulate the University (San Francisco) coach. I was ecstatic. We were on the podium (in second place),” Caruana said. “But then my phone started buzzing like crazy and other coaches were telling me we had won.”

Caruana returned to the live-scoring board and saw that, indeed, the now official results had Crystal Springs beating University, 129-131.

“Going to the state meet, I thought we could finish from first to fifth. First would be an amazing day,” Caruana said. “We ended up with some huge [personal records]. We had some 2-, 3-minute PRs. Then we had our (final four scoring runners) pass 39 girls in the last mile.

“It was just an incredible day.”

Boys’ water polo

The CCS boys’ water polo coaches held their postseason meeting and released their All-CCS teams last week.

It was no surprise to see a pair of Sacred Heart Prep players share the top honor. After helping lead the Gators to the West Catholic Athletic League, CCS and Northern California championships, teammates Will Swart and Jake Tsotadze were named Co-MVPs of CCS.

Two other SHP standouts, Luke Bachler and Hassen Hove, were named to the First Team, along with Menlo School’s Tommy Kiesling.

The Second Team featured Menlo goalie Cormac Mulloy and Teddy Meeks, along with another Gator, Harrison Rohlen.

SHP’s Tyler Hogan was a Third Team selection, along with Menlo’s Jackson Kay.

Honorable Mention selections went to Serra’s Sandro Salerno and Aragon’s Xavier McKenzie, the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division Player of the Year.