Photos

It was just one of those special days for the Gunn cross-country program, which lengthened its season by two weeks following a successful day at the Central Coast Section championships on Saturday at Crystal Springs in Belmont.

For the boys, Gunn senior Paul Summers ran away with the individual title with a personal best and school record of 14:41 over the rolling 2.95-mile course. He helped the Titans finish second in Division II and earn a trip to the CIF State Meet at Woodward Park in Fresno on Nov. 28.

For the girls, the Titans put four runners the top 11, scored 39 points and ran off with the Division I title for the first time since 2003 – also sending the entire team to the state finals. For Gunn coach Ernie Lee, it was a day filled with positive efforts.

"Paul had one of those days when everything clicked," said Lee, who watched his senior beat defending champ Garrett Rowe of Mountain View by 11 seconds, even though the Spartans still won the team title with just 29 points. "He was healthy, fit, and mentally prepared. Couple that with perfect weather and competition and it was an optimal recipe for an outstanding performance."

Summers' time also bordered on the historic, as it was the eighth-fastest in history on the legendary course while tying him with Andy DiConti (La Canada in 1979) as the No. 7 runners of all-time. His time also was the fastest since 1985 when twins Mark and Eric Mastalir of Jesuit (Sacramento) ran one-two in 14:38 and 14:39, respectively, at the Crystal Springs Invitational.

The all-time record on the course is 14:28 by Mitch Kingery of San Carlos in 1973.

For Summers, his time was a personal best by 20 seconds.

"I think it still hasn't sunk in," Summers said on Sunday. "In my wildest dreams I didn't think I could run that fast. It's hard to describe the feeling."

Lee, meanwhile, had no trouble talking up the rest of his team, as well.

"The rest if the boys put together a very impressive team performance,"said Lee, whose team finished with 89 points. "All seven boys ran personal bests."

Alex Johann was 13th in 15:51, Robert Chen was 15th in 15:52. Ethan Glassman was 28th in 16:30 and Peter Chen was 32nd in 16:36.

"We took two gambles on the boys' side, moving up Peter Chen from the frosh-soph and running Ethan Glassman (who was coming off a poor performance at the league meet)," Lee explained. "Ethan responded by being our No. 4, running probably the best race of his life, and Peter PR'd by 25 seconds to finish as our No. 5."

The Palo Alto boys also qualified for the state meet by finishing third with 116 points. Senior Philip MacQuitty had his best race of the season as he took fourth in 15:03, just missing the all-time list at Crystal. Josh Newby was 17th (15:57), Peter Wilson was 20th (16:03), Henry Jordan 33rd (16:36) and Ben Sklaroff was 43rd (16:49).

Paly coach Joe Ginanni went into the meet with the Gunn boys as a target goal.

"In regards to beating Gunn, I thought we had a chance . . . as far as qualifying for states we were confident, it would have taken a really bad day or an injury to keep us out," he said. "To beat Gunn it would have taken our best day possible, which we put up -- Gunn just responded with the same and had an awesome race, too."

Palo Alto's combined team time (80:28) was eight seconds faster than last year, which means that this team surpassed last year's team as the fastest Paly team to race at Crystal Springs.

The Gunn girls were pretty fast, too, while ending Carlmont's streak of four straight CCS titles.

"As for the girls, it was quite the bounce back from last week," said Lee, alluding to a second-place finish at the SCVAL El Camino Division finals. "We did get a bit lucky, as one of Carlmont's top runners had been ill (she finished as their No. 5, over a minute behind her PR). The huge race for us was from senior Rachel Wittenauer. She ran a personal best by 41 seconds."

Junior Erin Robinson led the Titans with a second-place finish of 18:19, a 36-second improvement over her previous best. Sophomore Kieran Gallagher followed in sixth in 18:45, senior Claire O'Connell was seventh in 18:49, Whittenauer was 11th in 19:04 and junior Emma Dohner came in 13th in 19:06.

Joining the Gunn girls as CCS team champs was The Priory. The Panthers scored 32 points to win Division V ahead of Crystal Springs (46) and Castilleja (69). All three teams advanced to the state meet out of the small five-team division. For Priory, it was its first-ever section championship. The Panthers are ranked eighth heading into the state meet.

The Priory also had the individual winner in sophomore Kat Gregory, who won comfortably in 19:07, well ahead of runnerup Rachel Skokowski of Castilleja (19:35). Priory also had Lauren Allen in fourth (19:46), Jennie Christensen in sixth (20:11), Devon Errington in 10th (21:19 and Liz Draeger 11th in 21:23.

Castilleja's Laura Swenson was 12th in 21:31, Katherin Taylor was 14th (22:06), Crystal Ghosh was 18th (22:29) and Julia McGeee took 27th in 25:23.

Qualifying for the state meet as an individual was Eastside Prep senior Darryl Sepulveda, who finished second in the boys' Division V race in 16:36.

-- Keith Peters