Castilleja runs to its best-ever finish Castilleja runs to its best-ever finish (December 04, 2002)in the state cross country finals

by Keith Peters

This season for the Castilleja cross country team has been just like a race - it doesn't matter how you start but how you finish.

At the beginning of the year, the Gators were without senior Alana Levinson. Midway through the season, they were without senior Karen Ring. And, throughout the campaign, the Gators were generally unranked and underrated.

At the CIF State Cross-Country Championships last Saturday in Fresno, however, the Gators put their past behind them and charged to a second-place finish in Division V. Castilleja scored 95 points, just seven points behind defending champion University (San Francisco). It was the Gators' best finish ever in the state meet.

"We are very happy about that," said Christine Lincke, the Gators' head coach. "We were only ranked eighth going in, but we didn't talk about that as a team. I thought we were underrated.

"I felt there were five teams capable of winning, and we actually didn't count ourselves out of first."

Lincke knew University, ranked No. 1 in the state in Division V, was favored and had dominated throughout the year.

"We knew they would stay in the race and that we had to stay close to them," Lincke said.

Castilleja actually led (14-21) after Levinson (fourth for scoring, seventh overall) clocked a personal record of 19:36 on the 5,000-meter (3.1 miles) layout and sophomore Sharlene Su (10th and 15th) ran a fine 20:18. After three runners for both teams had crossed, the teams were tied at 31. After four runners had finished, University held a one-point lead.

No sooner had Castilleja's Samia Rogers crossed the finish line as the Gators' No. 4 runner, then University's Molly Treadway raced in as its No. 5 runner to clinch the title.

Lincke was more than pleased with her team's performance for a number of reasons.

"Getting third last year changed the outlook of what was possible," she said. "We just kept improving."

Castilleja actually benefited from the injuries to Ring and Levinson, which allowed the younger runners like freshman Tomi Amos to gain some valuable experience. Ring was lost to a stress fracture after Oct. 22 and Levinson was out until early October.

Levinson returned in time to win the Central Coast Section title and lead the Gators last Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno. Not only was she the highest CCS finisher among the 156 runners in Division V, but the Gators wound up ranked seventh (on total time) among all 14 CCS teams competing in all divisions.

Perhaps most importantly, Castilleja's second-place team finish was the best of any CCS team. The Gunn girls were 16th in the loaded Division II race, the Gunn boys were 17th in Division II, the Palo Alto girls were 19th in Division III and Woodside Priory was 19th in the Division V boys' race.

Individually, Menlo-Atherton junior Jeremy Mineau had the second-best local finish behind Levinson. Mineau clocked a sub-par (for him) 15:27 to take 10th and earn all-state honors in the Division II boys' race that featured 193 runners.

"I think I went out too fast," Mineau said. "I did the first mile in 4:40 . . . I am not happy. I think I could have done better. I was looking to run around 15:10."

That would have been good enough for fourth. Last year, Mineau was ninth at the state meet. Still, Mineau was the fastest CCS runner in his division and wound up with the 17th-fastest time overall in all divisions (958 runners).

M-A teammate Evan Anderson was 44th in 16:10. Gunn was led by Andrew Lipkin, who finished 23rd in 15:49. In the Boys' Division V race, Peter Trudelle of Woodside Priory was 40th overall in 17:20.

In the Girls' Division II race, Gunn sophomore Tori Tyler led the Titans with a 36th-place finish in 19:06. Defending champion Ruth Graham, however, faded badly after the first mile and wound up an uncharacteristic 40th in 19:12. Graham has been bothered by allergies this season and obviously wasn't at her best. Menlo-Atherton junior Alison Doniger was 56h overall in the race, clocking 19:30.

In Division III, Palo Alto junior Danielle Miller led the Vikings with a 19:51 clocking, good for 59th. In Division IV, Menlo sophomore Libby Jenke ran a fine 20:01 for 34th.