Monday, July 06, 2009

Top CCS Girls' Individuals to watch in 2009 by Josh Small


GIRLS

1 Jessie Petersen 11 Carlmont (D1)
Peterson has won the CCS Championship for 3200 meters as a freshman and a sophomore, winning this years title in a personal best 10:51. Now a Junior, expect her to come into her own and be one of the top runners in the CCS. Having run 17:54 at Crystal Springs and 18:01 at State last year (not to mention her second place finish behind Fedronic in the D1 race) it is hard to argue against her being one of the best runners to return this season.

2 Rachel Hinds 11 St. Ignatius (D3)
There is a strong argument that she is the #1 cross country runner in the CCS. She does Lacrosse in the spring but that hasn’t slowed her down as she has seen steady improvement. The only question is: how will she respond without Daly there pushing her?

3 Marissa Ferrante 12 Aptos (D3)
Having run 18:06 at the Crystal Springs Inv. in 2008 Ferronte will once again battle for the top spot. Having run 4:52 for 1600 meters as a sophomore she battled through injury to start the 2009 track season but despite the late start ran a spectacular 10:56 in the 3200 meters. Her best races have come from a sit and kick strategy which will be tough to do on the hilly Crystal Springs course.

4 Samantha Hamilton 12 Half Moon Bay (D4)
The D4 champion in 2008 she is perhaps one of the strongest runners in the CCS this year. Before getting injured in the 2009 track season she ran an impressive early season time of 5:10 for 1600 meters. She should be ranked higher but just doesn’t have people to push her in D4 to run the fastest time in CCS. She enters the season with a time of 18:32 for Crystal Springs in 2008.

5 Allison Sturges 10 Mountain View (D2)
Not sure what happened at the end of XC last year but she was stellar on the track in 2009 as she finished 2nd in the CCS for the 1600meters. She progressed steadily throughout the season and it should carry over to the hills as she enters the season with a personal best of 18:46 for the Crystal Springs course. She very well could be the number one runner in CCS this year.

6 Lisa Fawcett 12 Gunn (D2)
Top returning runner in the highly competitive D2 finishing 4th in 2008. She ran 11:28 on the track this spring and is posed to lead a very powerful Gunn team.

7 Zoe Pappas 12 Mountain View (D2)
She finished as the #3 runner for Mountain View at the CCS Championship which was an astonishing 5th place over-all! She is the top returning cross country runner from last year’s very powerful team. Expect her to do great things with a training partner like Sturges.

8 Cindy Huang 11 Lynbrook (D2)
Making a huge jump in the 800 meter final at the CCS Championship Huang snagged 3rd place and was off to her first State meet. What is even more impressive is her range as she was not scared to mix it up with the longer distances. In fact, she ran the 3200 meter semi-final the week before she made State. She enters the season with a personal best of 18:46 for Crystal Springs.

9 Claudia Barnett 12 Leland (D2)
Her sister dominated cross country for four years and now she has a chance to get out of her sisters shadow and shine. If Leland can convert their track success to cross country she should have some quality training partners and be up at the top of the leader board once again.

10 Samantha Garcia 10 Evergreen Valley (D1)
This girl had a spectacular freshman year and steadily improved all year. Running 19:31 over Crystal Springs she really shined on the track this season consistently ran in the 11:30 range for 3200 meters and had a huge breakthrough at the BVAL final where she beat Barnett in a personal best time of 11:14. Expect great things from her this fall.

OTHER TOP CONTENDERS:

Katie Castro 11 Los Gatos (D2)
2008 Best: Crystal Springs- 18:57; Torro - 19:34; State - 19:35

Melissa Hopper 12 Leigh (D2)
2008 Best: Crystal - 19:08; Torro - 19:30; State - 19:43

Victoria Tsolis 11 Presentation (D2)
2008 Best: Crystal - 19:06; Torro - 19:51; Track - 5:13 (1600), 2:14 (800)

Kim McMullen 12 Aptos (D3)
2008 Best: Crystal - 19:14; Torro - 19:52; State - 19:26

Erin Hicks 12 Los Altos (D2)
2008 Best: Crystal – 19:18; Torro – 19:40; Track – 11:19 (3200)

Abby Barker 12 Carlmont (D1)
2008 Best: Crystal - 19:14; Torro - 19:51; State - 19:33

Kendra Higgins 12 Valley Christian (D3)
Previous Bests: Crystal - 18:57; Torro - 18:43. Great runner who placed 3rd in CCS (D3) as a freshman but how will she respond after a year off?

PEOPLE TO WATCH:

Angie Korpusik, Presentation
Abbey Blake, Westmont
Linnea Biddick, Aptos
Michelle Hopper, Leigh
Emily Sitler, St.Francis
Emily Blaha, Valley Christian
Athena Alarcorn, Gilroy
Ellie Sanders, Santa Cruz
Kat Grgeory, Woodside Priory
Kieran Gallagher, Gunn

WILL THESE TOP TRACK ATHLETES RUN XC IN 2009?

Erin Robinson, Gunn
Melissa Hastings, Hillsdale (5:04, 11:09)
Morgan Healy, Saint Francis
Jordan Diaz, Leigh
Nisha Parmeshwar, Leland

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about Georgia Cottong of Carlmont?

Albert Caruana said...

Please list her qualifications and why she belongs on that list.

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

any rankings for ncs comin up?

Albert Caruana said...

Yes. I have been in the process of getting feedback from coaches around NCS and will start posting the pre-season rankings by next week.

Anonymous said...

Well since Ferrante is being included based on times she ran last year (granted the 10:56 was this year but still), as well as Kendra Higgins... well Georgia Cottong ran a 4:58 1600 2 years ago (one freak performance, her other times were definitely not near this). She has run in the 19s at Crystal as well.

Anonymous said...

I do not believe that Georgia Cottong actually ran that 4:58 since that mark was removed from the CCS lists. My guess is that it was actually Fedronic who ran the time and they got the entry mixed up.

reader said...

I thought Albert Caruana posted that Cottong ran 4:58 somewhere on Dyestat too...

Evan Smith said...

Sturges was 2nd in the 1600 at CCS, not 1st. Thanks for doing all of these rankings Josh! They are fun to look at.

Albert Caruana said...

Thanks Evan. Corrected.

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