Menlo News October 05, 2022

Cross country teams win WBAL 1, shatter record

Girls get gold; boys beat team course record time
The Menlo boys' cross country team set a record at Crystal Springs

The Menlo boys and girls powered through to win the first West Bay Athletic League meet of the season at Crystal Springs, breaking records along the way, on Wednesday.
The Knights boys won with a league record total time of 81:36.0 on the course, beating the previous mark of 81:53.7 set by Crystal last season.
“Both of our varsity squads stepped up today to throw down some solid performances,” Menlo coach Jorge Chen said. “The girls really surprised the league and themselves, even without a top runner, pulling away for a big victory. They inspired the boys to do the same.”
In their final prep season together, senior Justin Pretre and sophomore Landon Pretre crossed the finish line together for the final 100 of the 2.95-mile race together, and finished in 15:44.1.
Senior Aiden Deffner was fifth in 16:25.4 and Will Hauser sixth in 16:25.9. Alex Boesch took 12th in 17:16.3 and James Yue was 22nd in 18:21.9. Joshua Benyo-Baker was 33rd in 19:11.4.
In the girls race, freshman Devon Tussing-Adkinson placed fifth in 20:27.0 and sophomore Eden Chuang was sixth in 20:31.6. Junior Taylor Tam placed ninth in 20:54.0 and sophomore Audrey Tsao placed 14th in 22:03.6. Anya Ramani was 25th in 23:08.5.
The Knights finished with 58 ahead of second place Crystal by 22 points, Castilleja was third with 83.
“Even though people tend to remember only the postseason, our squads’ performances today gives us great hope not only in league, but hopefully for CCS and state too! We’re very happy with their training shining through today,” Chen said.
The Menlo JV boys placed second with Amay Srinivasan the team’s top finisher in fourth, and the JV girls took fourth with Audrey Hochstetter placing 12th to lead the Knights.