Sports

Cougars Qualify for Regional Championships in Cross Country

We thank Cougar Online for permission to reprint its article on both of Albany High's varsity cross country teams advancing to the championship competition for the North Coast Section (NCS), one of the state's 10 regions for high school athletics.

Editor's note: the following article is reprinted by permission from the Albany High student publication, Cougar Online.

Cross Country Advances to NCS

By Ya Davis – November 9, 2013

The Albany cross country team ended the season with a solid performance at the TCAL championships on November 7. Both varsity teams will advance to NCS on Saturday, November 23 at Hayward High School.

The frosh/soph men came out on top in their race, securing the only first place score for Albany. Led by Daniel Fone, Eli Lee, Lincoln Colby, and Eugene Chou, the Cougars had four finishers in the top six.

JV women had a very close race and second place finish with cross-town rival Saint Mary’s.  Sophomore Patty Quinn was a leader of the pack for the whole race.  She battled out the last 100 meters with a Saint Mary’s runner, but was beat at the finish to place second.

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JV men managed to eke out a second place finish over rival St. Joes.  Senior Michael Williams led the team and broke the school’s record on this course by 15 seconds.

Varsity women placed five runners in the top 20 to edge out St. Joe’s for second place. Sophomore Annabel Driussi battled and overcame an El-Cerrito runner in the last 100 meters, earning her a spot on First Team All-League.  Another great performance was made by freshman Alexis Ballman who passed six girls in the last mile to get tenth place.

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Varsity men ran a hard race against state-qualifiers St. Joe’s and St. Mary’s.  They finished with a respectable third.  Led by three freshmen, two sophomores, and one junior, the team improved their time by over seven minutes from last year.

Twenty four runners earned individual medals for top-15 finishes and recognition on either First Team All-League or Second Team All-League.

Women’s Varsity First Team All-League: Sophomore Annabel Driussi.

Men’s Varsity Second Team All-League:  Sophomores Cameron Daly and Sebastian Jones, junior Alan Zhang.

Women’s Varsity Second Team All-League: Freshman Alexis Ballman and sophomore Jacey Delatorre.

Men’s JV First Team All-League:  Juniors Maxwell Ngo and Randall Ma, senior Michael Williams.

Women’s JV First Team All-League: Sophomore Patty Quinn, junior Ya Davis.

Men’s JV Second Team All-League: Sophomore Nikhil Sahoo, juniors Peter Russell, and Martin Genova.

Women’s JV Second Team All-League: Freshman Melia Palioca, sophomores Jilly Delatorre, and Hana Minsky.

Men’s Frosh/soph First Team All-League: Freshmen Daniel Fone and Eli Lee, sophomores Lincoln Colby and Eugene Chou.

Men’s Frosh/soph Second Team All-League: Freshman Kaelib Wilson, sophomores Arthur Lin and Kyle Su.


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