Publication Date: Wednesday, December 03, 2003
M-A's Mineau races to second place in CIF state cross country
M-A's Mineau races to second place in CIF state cross country
(December 03, 2003) Castilleja girls take fifth and Gunn boys finish sixth in their respective team races
by Keith Peters
Since the beginning of the season, Jeremy Mineau's goal was to win a state title in cross country.
While the Menlo-Atherton senior just missed when he finished second in the Division I boys' race at the CIF State Cross-Country Championships last Saturday, his season was successful nonetheless.
Moreover, Mineau's season has yet to conclude. He and M-A junior Evan Anderson will compete in the 25th annual Foot Locker West Regional meet on Saturday at Mt. SAC in Walnut. The competition is one of four such regionals around the nation. The top eight finishers will advance to the national championships on Dec. 13 at Balboa Park in San Diego.
"This is an extra-credit goal," Mineau said of the West Regional. "Last year at this point I was pretty spent from the state meet. Physically, I'm not sure where I am but mentally I'm more prepared."
Mineau was 26th out of 236 seeded runners in last year's West Regional while Anderson didn't compete. Both, however, ran very well earlier this season at Mt. SAC - Mineau running a then career-best 14:59 and Anderson clocking a then-career best of 15:49 on the hilly 3-mile course.
Both have run faster since then and showed their fitness with solid times on the 3.1-mile state-meet layout at Woodward Park in Fresno last Saturday.
Mineau, who took the lead in the boys' Division I race at the 1 1/2-mile mark, held on until the final 400 meters when Yosef Ghebray of James Logan in Union City outkicked Mineau to win in 15:15. Mineau was second in 15:19 and Anderson 27th in 15:54.
"I knew I had a chance of winning if I worked hard to take over and push the pace," said Mineau, who maintained a 10-20-yard lead much of the race until Ghebray made his eventual winning move.
Mineau said he was happy finishing second right after the race, but did some soul-searaching later and figured there were ways he could have won.
"I could have thrown in some surges, to see if he (Ghebray) would come with me," said Mineau, who finished 10th in the state as a junior and 42nd his sophomore year. "It's not a perfect ending. My goal was to win. This was my goal race."
Mineau's finish also reflected that of Castilleja in the Division V race. The Gators, who finished third two years ago and second last season, were hoping to win it all last weekend. Instead, Castilleja settled for fifth place. Sophomore Tomi Amos, however, capped a sensational season with a third-place finish of 19:20.
The only other local team competing was the Gunn boys' squad, which finished a respectable sixth in the Division II race. Senior Andrew Lipkin led the way with a 16:08 clocking, good for 25th. Junior Zach Klapholz-Brown was 31st in 16:14.
Individually, Gunn junior Tori Tyler was 21st in the girls' Division II race in 18:38 while Paly freshman Renata Cummins was 75th in 19:45. In the girls' Division I race, Menlo-Atherton senior Alison Doniger finished 39th out of 201 runners in 19:11. In Division V, Sacred Heart Prep's Kraemer Straube (103rd) and Emily Reagan (75th) paced the Gators' boys' and girls' entries.
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