Cupertino High School Cross Country 2004
Page last updated: 12/27/04
Home of the Pioneers
Head Coach  Paul Armstrong
Awards and Season Recap

All-NorCal Team
Honorable Mention  Julianne Hansen
All-Frosh  Sumika Shiokawa

SJMN All-CCS Team
Second Team  Julianne Hansen
Second Team  Sumika Shiokawa

California Coaches' Alliance All CIF CCS Team
Second Team  Julianne Hansen
 Second Team Sumika Shiokawa

ALL-LEAGUE
Top15 - VB & VG, Top 10 - F/S & JVG,  Top5 -JVB
Xi-Lin Yeh, Julianne Hansen, Sumika Shiokawa, Kimberly Chew, Stacie Boyle, Lisa Willliam

MVPs
Xi-Lin Yeh, Mrinal Bedi,
Julianne Hansen, Sumika Shiokawa,
 Hsin-Chang Chen

COACH'S AWARDS
Anhad Singh, Patricia Lu

SCHOLAR ATHLETES
Hsin-Chang Chen, Julianne Hansen,  Melinda Nguyen, Simei Yeh
3.5 and above GPA
Mrinal Bedi, Stacie Boyle, Melissa Gomez, Julianne Hansen,  Nathaniel Langlois, Patricia Lu, Melinda Nguyen,
 Tom Pashut, Gautum Peri, Sumika Shiokawa, Anhad Singh, Zac Whitney, Simei Yeh
BLOCK Cs
(first varsity letter in any sport)
Mrinal Bedi,  Melissa Gomez, Sumika Shiokawa, Anhad Singh,  Simei Yeh
Stars
(varsity letter past the first one)
Stacie Boyle, Kimberly Chew, Julianne Hansen, Ken Han, Andrew Loc, Patricia Lu, Gautum Peri, Kaoru Takada, Lisa Willliam, Xi-Lin Yeh

CAPTAINS
Stacie Boyle, Robert McClure, Philip Saneski, Kaoru Takada

PIONEER SPIRIT AWARD
Robert McClure

300 MILE CLUB

SEASON RECAP

How do you evaluate a cross country season?  Is it by the individual or team placement at meets? Could it be by the team finish at the league finals?  Or, perhaps it is the attainment of the CCS qualification.  Each of you probably had your own goals for the season.  My  goals for this season included the following:  (The same as last year.)

  1)  Everyone improves from the beginning of the season to the end and/or from last season to this season.  This is my primary mission.
  2)  Start with more people on the team and retain as many as possible.
  3)  Try to get more girls on the team.
  4)  Minimize chances for injuries by monitoring mileage and  lessen pavement pounding.
  5)  Return to CCS.
  6)  Return to State. 
  7)  Teach and coach to the success process model.
  8)  Try to do a shin splint exercise at every practice.
  9)  Try to get two mile splits at Crystal Springs.
10) Try to do more individual goal setting.
11) Focus on running the Crystal Springs course more.
12) Do more work on relaxation, focusing, and mental preparation.
13) Light weight training at least once per week.
14) Fund raisers.
15) Add more "fun" things.

This season was a mixed bag.  The boys once again had limited success and the girls were great.  Everyone except two people ran PRs during the course of the season.  Of those those two, one had allergy problems and the other did not work hard enough and had other priorities.  The boys finished fifth at league and girls placed first.  Last year they were sixth and fourth, respectively. Again, the team times were significantly better for both teams than last year.  Almost everyone improved in some way.  We retained almost everyone who started the season (raced in a meet), losing only one.  We only had one season ending injury.  Several talented freshman boys joined the team.  Mrinal was the best of the group and in a number meets had the fastest time of all the boys on the team.  He just missed qualifying for CCS.  Xi-Lin worked extremeky hard during the season and it paid off with a trip to CCS.

I was disappointed by the number girls out for the team, but pleased by the effort they put in and their dominance at most meets.   Last year the girls placed among the top teams in CCS.  This year they were one of the top teams in CCS.  They finished the season ranked 7th in the SJMN.  Going into the season, I expected the girls to return to CCS because we had a core of four returning.  We needed at least one to complete the team.  Two freshman stepped in and ran very well.  As the season progressed, I kept raising the bar in my head.  I expected that we not only would have a better finish at CCS, but had a good chance to qualify for state.  It appears that most people did not think we had that chance, including some on the team.  In the end,  the girls won league, placed 3rd at CCS, and 9th at state.  At the state meet they were the 1st CCS team in D2 and the had the 3rd fastest time of any CCS team overall.  

End of season statistics:
1. The girls had the 8th fastest team time at Toro in CCS.
2. Julianne had the 11th best time at Crystal Springs in CCS.
3. Sumika had the 15th best time at Crystal Springs in CCS.
4. The girls had the 6th best team time at Crystal out of  67 teams.
5. The boys had the 35th best team time at Crystal out of 77 teams.
6. We  had four complete teams at league finals.
7a. 2002 DAL: 23 runners, VB-(116 points, 90:37, 5th) VG-(144 points, 115:00, 5th ) JVB- inc. team,  F/S-(145 points, 107:13, 5th,) JVG- no team
7b. 2003 DAL: 32 runners, VB-(135 points, 89:51, 6th) VG-(90 points, 102:46, 4th)  JVB-(106 points, 113:00, 4th,)  F/S-inc,  JVG-(172 points, 130:33, 6th)
7c. 2004 DAL: 34 runners, VB-(128 points, 89:10.3, 5th) VG-(42 points, 98:32.3, 1st)  JVB-(135 points, 102:13, 6th)  F/S-(131 points, 102:24, 5th)  JVG - inc
8. CCS: 2002: 1 boy, 2 girls    2003: 1 boy, 7 girls (a team) 7th  2004:  1 boy,  7 girls (a team) 3rd
9. State: 2002: no one    2003:  1 girl    2004:  7 girls (a team) 9th
10. Julianne broke the sophomore and school records for Crystal Springs.
11. Sumika broke the frosh school record for Crystal Springs.
12. The girls twice broke the school record for Crystal Springs.
13. The girls won 6 meets and placed 2nd four times.
14. We won a ton of medals throughout the season.
15.We were the 3rd team from CCS overall at state, and 35th of 112 teams overall based upon team time. This is awesome, considering the size of our girls team!!!! This was the first time since 2000 that CCS had a D2 girls team in the top 10!!
16. Sumika was the 13th frosh overall and 3rd from CCS at state..
17. Julianne was the 23rd soph and 3rd from CCS at state.

  Keys to success for the future:
1. Most of you have to run consistently during the summer.
2. The overall attitude that we bring to practice and meets needs to be less of  "surviving" and more of  running to "full potential."  In other words, show up ready to run and compete, especially at every meet.  Train hard during practice.
3. Weekend meets will continue to be mandatory unless excused by the coach.
4. We will increase the mileage load for the "older" runners.
5. We must continue to get more people out for cross country and keep them on the team for four years.

Season  Highlights:
08/16 (Mon)  Pre-Season Starts                               6:00PM    Cupertino HS
    28 attended the first day of official practice.  One of those decided not to come back.

09/01 (Wed)  All Sports BBQ & Parent Meeting        5:00      Cupertino HS
    Ten parents attended the meeting. about the same as last year.

09/09 (Thu)    Lynbrook Center Meet (2.1)                3:30     Lynbrook HS
       We  had a good day overall.  Both varsity teams finished better than last year.  The girls finished 2nd
     and the boys came in 4th.  Mrinal raced to 2nd in the frosh/soph race and Julianne took 3rd place in the
     varsity race.  The best boys finish time was Xi-Lin who came in 11th with a 11:48.8 - a 20 second
     improvement over last year.  The best improvement from last year was Patricia with a 3 minute and
     40 second drop, then Daniel at 1:28.  Sumika surpised as our 3rd finsher in the varsity race.

9/15 Girls ranked 8th in CCS in SJMN poll.  2nd behind number 1 Los Gatos in D2.  Last year, they were
        ranked 13th on 10/8/03, but never were on the list again.
09/16 (Thu)    FireBird Invitational (2.05)                   3:30     Fremont HS
     Good improvement.  The Girls Varsity  was impressive in winning.  It may be the first time CHS Girls
     have ever won a meet.  Mrinal and Daniel battled each other in the F/S race and finished first and second.
     Xi-Lin put it out there and blew through the first mile in 5:05.  Julianne improved her standing for the course
     record from 22nd to about ninth.  Patricia had the largest improvement over last year at 2:38, followed by
     Daniel at 1:32, then Stacie with 1:30.  Even though the distances for Lynbrook and Firbird are just slightly
    different, it is interesting to see the improvement.  Everyone improved!!  The largest improvements were
    Brittany at 2:36, Josh 1:53, Stacie 1:35, Melissa 1:31, Srikanth 1:26, Melinda 1:25, Patricia 1:20 and Simei
    1:16.

9/22 Girls ranked 7th in CCS in SJMN poll.  3rd behind number 1 Los Gatos and number 6 Mitty in D2.

09/23 (Thu)    Saratoga Center Meet (2.0)                  3:30     Saratoga HS
     Hotter today at around 88 and a smaller meet.  We  trained through this meet.  Despite the heat the training,
    it was another medal bonanza  for CHS as we collected  in each division.   We went with a strong F/S team
    again.  There were no big improvements.  Srikanth looked very good finishing.  Julianne stalked Follmar as
    long as she could.  Xi-Lin continued to put himself among the front runners.  Mrinal and Daniel battled again
    until Daniel had to drop off the pace.  Mrianl ended up finishing alone on his birthday.  The Girls Varsity ran
    away again with all five in the top 14.   Melissa stepped in for the injured Sumika and earned her medal.
    Julianne and Lisa improved their position on the meet all-time top 35 performance list and Kim and Stacie
    make their first appearance on the list.
09/25 (Sat)     Stanford Invite (3.1)                            12:00   Stanford Golf Course
    Untested on hills and at 3.1 miles on an unknown course, this turned out to be a good day for our varsity             teams.  The biggest surprises of the day were the freshman in both races.  Mrinal led the boys in with a 60th
    place finish overall.  Sumika and Melissa raced in with second and fourth team placements.  Julianne was our
    highest finisher overall at fourteen , garnering one of the T-shirt awards. 

9/29 Girls ranked 7th in CCS in SJMN poll.  2nd behind number 1 Los Gatos in D2.  Note rankings have yet to         be published in the newspaper.

09/28 (Tue)    Central Park Invitational (2.3)               3:15    Central Park
    The Frosh/soph boys placed 4th led by Mrinal and Daniel.  Mrinal was posed to win, but did not make the
    turn just before the final stretch and finished second.  The girls varsity finished 2nd, just a 8 points out of 1st.
    Julinanne was 3rd,  Kim place 9th, Sumika was 13th,  Stacie finished 20th, and Melissa was 33rd.  Xi-Lin was
    the top varsity boys finisher placing 12th.  Julianne moves up further on the all-time meet top 25 list.

10/2 (Sat)       Artichoke Invitational (2.33)                 1:00    Half Moon Bay                     
    We went with a strong frosh/soph girls team and an incomplete varsity girls team.   The FSG team finished
    third in their division led by Julianne who finished 1st and broke the frosh/soph girls meet record by 18
    seconds.  Sumika  followed with a 4th place and Melissa at 16th.  Xi-Lin led the varsity boys placing 33rd.
    Mrinal paced the frosh/soph boys with a 11th place finish and had the fastest  time of the day from Cupertino.     Kim and Stacie placed 10th and 29th in the varsity girls race.

10/05 (Tue)    SCVAL - Crystal Springs (2.95)            3:15    Crystal Springs
    Mrinal blazed to a 17:03.5 in his first ever race at Crystal Springs.  The CHS frosh record is 16:05 set by Dave    Avila in 1975.  Dave also holds the school record of 14:57 set in 1977.  Julianne posted a 19:17.1 which breaks
    the girls sophomore record of 19:29 by Celeste Dunlap in 1977.  Julianne broke Celeste's frosh record and I
    expect her to break her school record this year.  The girls team ran a combined time that would qualify for a
    CCS At-Large-Berth if it were run at our league finals.  They ran 102:28 and the CCS mark is 106:32.  They
   also just missed the school team record of 102:03 set in 1981 for 6th place at CCS.  Xi-Lin had a breakthrough     race running 17:42 early in the season, just 10 seconds off of his personal best.

10/6 Girls are ranked 7th in CCS in SJMN poll again.  2nd behind number 1 Los Gatos in D2.  Note rankings
     still have not been published in the newspaper.

 10/09 (Sat)     Serra Invitational (2.95)                      10:00    Crystal Springs
    Coach Armstrong canceled participation.

10/14  The Girls continue to be ranked in the top 15, dropping to 12th this week without competing.

10/16  (Sat)    Monterey Bay  Invitational (3.0)           9:00    Toro Park, Salinas
   The Varsity Girls out paced the field to score their 3rd meet win and 6th top 3 place finish of the year.
   Julianne was first in for the ladies at 18:57 followed closely by Sumika with a 19:35, then Kim (20:03),  
   Melissa  (20:23),  Lisa (20:44), and Stacie (21:03).  Mrinal led the boys with a fine 17:13 finishing 33rd.
   Xi-Lin  was our second finisher at 17:43 followed by Andrew in 18:21.  Ansel had his best race of the year
   with a 19:23 in the JV race. Hsin-Chang led the frosh/soph boys with a 19:44 followed by Tom 3 seconds
   later.  Jonathan, who sprinted in  just ahead of Ryu (19:57),  had a big improvement with a 19:56.  Robert ran
   this race 3 years ago in 22:58 and today ran 20:02.  Josh, Rajpal, and Eric improved 1:30 to 2:00 over @
   3 miles.

10/20  The Girls jumped back up in the rankings after their performance at Monterey Bay to 5th.  Still 2nd
   behind number 1 Los Gatos in D2.  Note rankings still have not been published in the newspaper.

10/21 (Thu)   Crystal Springs #2 (2.95)                       3:15    Crystal Springs
   LOTS of personal records!!  Just what this coach likes to see.  The Varsity Girls took down the field for their
  4th meet win, eking out a 2 point win over Burlingame (D3).  Julianne broke the sophomore record again and]
  the school record by 1 second.  Sumika placed 5th just 15 seconds off the frosh record.  The team - Julianne,
  Sumika, Kim, Stacie, Lisa, and Melissa- smashed the school record by nearly 4 minutes.  Mrinal dipped under
  the 17 minute barrier with a 16:56 and Xi-Lin just missed with a  17:02.
 
10/27  The Girls maintained their 5th place ranking overall and continue to be 2nd behind number 1 Los Gatos
   in D2, but ahead of Mitty, Gunn, and Palo Alto.  Note rankings were finally published in the newspaper.

10/28 (Thu)   Lynbrook Invitational (2.1)                    3:30    Lynbrook HS
              (also doubling as the FUHSD District XC Championships)  ALL MUST ATTEND
   I opted to use this meet as preparation for League Finals on Tuesday.  The goal was to run a fast mile and
   hang on.  Most people ran a faster mile than previous meets, although some not fast enough for me.  The Girls
   missed winning the whole meet by one point to Monta Vista which translates into one place change and leads
   back to the idea of "focus" while racing.  However,  they won the FUHSD Champs on the 6th place
   tie-breaker.  Xi-Lin blazed a 4:58 first mile finishing 9th.  Julianne finshed 2d with a 5:44 first mile.  Everyone
   ran faster than they did in September on this course.  The smallest margin was 3.6 seconds and the largest was
   3 minutes and 45 seconds. 

11/02(Tue)     DAL League Finals (2.95)                     2:15    Crystal Springs  ALL MUST ATTEND
   The Varsity Girls took first, breaking the school team record again this year.  Also, Julianne finished 2nd and
   broke her own school record and Sumika broke Julianne's frosh record.  The team, including Kim, Stacie, 
   Lisa, Melissa, and Patricia, qualified for the CCS meet in Salinas on November 13.
   They are having a great season!!

   Xi-Lin Yeh was our only Varsity Boys qualifier for CCS.  Mrinal just missed qualifying for CCS.

11/3  The Girls dropped to a 6th place ranking overall, but continue to be 2nd behind number 1 Los Gatos
   in D2 and still ahead of Mitty, Gunn, and Palo Alto.  Note rankings are being published in the newspaper
   every Wednesday now.

11/10  The Girls dropped to a 7th place ranking overall, but continue to be 2nd behind number 1 Mitty
   in D2 and still ahead of  Gunn, and Palo Alto.  Los Gatos dropped to  8th.  Note rankings were published in
   online edition of the SJMN this Wednesday.  Apparently, this is the last ranking for the season.
                       
11/13 (Sat)     CCS Meet (2.95)                                 10:00   Crystal Springs 
                         MUST ATTEND if we qualify
   Xi-Lin finished in the middle of the pack.  The Girls fiinished in 3rd place behind Mitty and Los Gatos.  Julianne and 
    Sumika went  4th and 5th and received medals.  Kim was next in at 28th,  Lisa had a strong  finish in 30th, Melissa was
    33rd, Stacie was 34th,  and Patricia was 79th.  There 24 teams in the girls race and 108 competitors.  If you combine all
    of the girls teams,  we came in 8th out of 62.  This will be the first time that CHS will send a team to the state meet, boy
    or girl.. 
.
 11/27 (Sat)     State Meet (3.1)                                   9:30AM    Woodward Park, Fresno
It was only slightly damp during our race, afterwards the conditions deteriorated.  The team finished in 9th place out of 23 teams and was the first team from CCS.  Our order of finish was Julianne (19:03.6, 28th), Sumika (19:09.2, 35th), Kim (19:46.0, 65th), Stacie (20:34.4, 117th), Lisa (20:51.4, 129th), Melissa (20:56.6, 133rd), and Patricia (22:29.5, 183rd).  Special kudos to Kim for far exceeding her race goal and to Patricia for just making hers.  They were the 35th team out of 112 overall based upon team time.  This is awesome considering the size (10 girls total) of our girls team!!!  This was the first time since 2000 that CCS had a D2 girls team in the top 10!! Sumika had the 13th fastest frosh time overall and the 3rd fastest from CCS.  Julianne  was the 23rd fastest soph and 3rd from CCS. Julianne and Sumika were 12th and 15th fastest among the CCS finishers, and 92nd and 105th in the overall finish respectively.  There were 105 finishers in D2 and 906 overall.  

The state cross country meet has only existed since 1987.  All of the meets have been held at Woodward Park in Fresno.  This team made a lot of history this year.


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