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Favored Puma girls finish second at state
Maria Carrillo was hoping to bring home first championship banner
Sunday, November 28, 2004

By STEVE BRAND
FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

FRESNO - Being ranked No. 1 brings with it recognition but also an inherent danger.

You become the target.

Maria Carrillo's girls learned that lesson at Saturday's CIF State Cross Country Championships
when the Pumas fell short in their quest to capture the Division III title.

Not that there's anything wrong with being No. 2, mind you - there were 21 other schools in the
race that would have gladly traded places - but the top-ranked Pumas were hoping to bring home
the school's first state cross country championship banner.

Placer High of Auburn outside of Sacramento had other ideas on an icy cold, rainy day that
turned the Woodward Park course to slippery Jell-O in several areas, low-scoring the Pumas
125-142.

"When you're No. 1, everyone is after you," said senior Amy Robinson, who placed 13th overall
in 18:55, two spots behind sophomore teammate Leanne Fogg (18:47).

"It seems strange to be upset with second but personally I'm a little disappointed. I feel I
could have given more the last mile, I could have stayed with Leanne longer."

But Robinson, who will attend UC Davis in the fall, said she just didn't have the mental edge,
something she thought she had regained after her third-place finish in the North Coast Section
championships a week ago.

"When your head tells you that you can't do it, your legs follow," Robinson said.

She was being a little hard on herself, however, since the other three Pumas runners were even
farther back as Placer managed to win every position-by-position matchup but one.

Coach Dan Aldridge has been there before and while he acknowledged some disappointment, he
remained upbeat.

"We had such a good shot," said Aldridge. "You have good days and you have better days. This
was just a good day for most of the girls. That's part of racing.

"There's nothing wrong with second, it's the best we've ever done. I'm not disappointed, but I
know the girls are disappointed. We were ranked No. 1 and we wanted to finish No. 1."

Although there were just 22 seconds between No. 3 runner Kristen Sanzari (41st) and No. 5
Kristin Fladseth (68th), 27 runners, including Puma Jacqui Wentz in 54th, wedged their way
between them.

That's how crowded it gets at the state meet.

Individually, Piner's Dawit Tesfasilassie earned all-state honors with his narrow 10th-place
finish in Division III boys at 15:57.

It was the same time given Placer's Ken Parnow and Tesfasilassie didn't know if he'd earned
the Top 10 finish until well after the race was over.

I was hoping for the Top 10 but I thought I was 11th," said Tesfasilassie, who is hoping to
attend either UC Davis or Cal. "At the line we were side-by-side and I tried to go for it.
But I didn't know for sure."

Tesfasilassie, who emigrated to the United State from Eritrea just six years ago when his as
well as his sister's families hit the immigration lottery, said anything he achieves in cross
country is a bonus since he considers himself a track runner first.

"That was the big lottery, coming here - this is a little one," Tesfasilassie said, smiling.

Other Top 20 finishes included a 13th by Santa Rosa Christian's Jeff Jackson (16:48) in boys
Division V, a 14th by St. Helena's Brian Cole (16:24) in boys Division IV and an 18th by
Casa Grande's Ashton LeSieur (18:50) in girls Division II.

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