BCL West League Meet Summary and Pictures

Today's BCL West Meet at the Crystal Springs Course included hosts Crystal Springs Uplands (CSU) along with San Francisco University (UHS), Marin Academy (MA), Bay (BAY) and Drew Schools (DREW). This was the final league meet for all schools involved before the league final which will take place next week on Friday, November 2nd at Lindley Meadow in Golden Gate Park.

The girls' race got underway at 4:00pm with three Division V state ranked teams in the race: #4 CSU (above left), #5 MA (above middle) and #9 UHS (above right). The early leader during the first mile was CSU's Alysha de Souza who raced out to an early lead in front of her teammate, Aimee Raleigh, eventual winner Cecilia Furlong of UHS and MA's Alesandra Roger who trailed the lead pack at about 7th place.

Furlong eventually passed de Souza during the downhill filled 2nd mile and raced to an 11 second victory over last year's NCS Division V champion, Roger (19:30 to 19:41). Furlong, who is running Cross Country for the first time after three years of Volleyball, had an outstanding Track and Field season and will be one of the favorites for the individual crown at Hayward HS (NCS course). Teammates Raleigh and de Souza came in 3rd and 4th respectively.

The University girls, who have been plagued by early season injuries, are now back in the hunt for the NCS title. They defeated CSU 24-33 and MA 25-34 while CSU defeated MA 26-31. With MA missing 2 runners from their lineup at today's race, they will hope to join the chase for the NCS title along with UHS, CSU and College Prep from the BCL East.
The boys' race got underway at 4:30pm with the pre-meet favorite being the San Francisco University squad (pictured above). On the latest state meet rankings, UHS was ranked 4th in the state and will looking to regain the NCS crown that they lost last year to College Prep after 8 straight titles.
The lead pack at the first mile mark was all dressed in red (as well as one cardinal shirt). T Bliska of MA and Wieshen Mead of UHS lead the UHS pack and Bryce Cronkite-Ratcliff of CSU. Bliska eventually powered away for the individual victory and was the only runner to dip under the 17 minute mark with a time of 16:52. The weather was warm but noticeable cooler than the conditions of the previous day as the "indian summer" has finally made an appearance in the Bay Area.

With 7 runners in the top 10, UHS dominated with easy victories over CSU (15-49) and MA (20-43). CSU defeated MA by a score of 24 to 36. Pictured below are the first three finishers, MA's Bliska, and UHS's Kelahafer and Mead and the top individuals in both races.

The Crystal Springs Course will get quite a workout in the next two weeks as it will host today's Center Meet, all the league finals next week and the CCS Meet on November 10th.