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Empire boys highlight NCS cross country meet By MIKE COIT PRESS DEMOCRAT Published: Saturday, November 21, 2009 HAYWARD — Led by a handful of top runners and two particularly strong teams, Empire boys ran a remarkable string of races at the North Coast Section cross country championships on Saturday. The third race of the day resumed a season-long battle familiar to the North Bay League as Reesey Byers (15:09) outkicked Andrew Zellman (15:15) in the Div. II event. The Santa Rosa senior avenged a pair of losses to the Ukiah senior. “I wanted to really push the last hill. I felt good,” Byers said. Zellman had no answer until he congratulated Byers with a high-five after the race. “Hey, way to go, that last hill, you just burned it.” The pair was never challenged in the race, reflecting the Empire’s competition level. Even better was Luis Luna, the slight sophomore from Piner, in the Div. III race. He ran a second faster (15:08) than Byers’ time in finishing behind superlative Novato senior Erik Olson, who set an NCS Div. III record at 14:49. Luna knocked nearly a minute off his NCS time a year ago. “I’ve always had the endurance. I’ve been working on the speed,” Luna said. “I didn’t leave anything out there.” Seven individual runners from the Empire ran fast enough to qualify for the state meet next week. In addition to Zellman, Spencer Hall, a Casa Grande senior, and Jamie Goldfield, a Montgomery junior, advanced in Div. II. Luna moved on in Div. III. Brian King, a Cardinal Newman senior, took third in Div. IV with teammate Alexi Taylor, a sophomore, also advancing to state. Justin Watkins, a Santa Rosa Christian senior, made it in Div. V. “This is a very good year for the county. It may have been the best year ever,” said Santa Rosa coach Doug Courtemarche. Santa Rosa’s boys finished second in Div. II to qualify for the state meet. Their Nos. 6 and 7 runners finished ahead of Alameda’s fifth runner, helping provide the mere one point difference in the teams’ final scores. “The strategy was to run smart, get in good position in the first mile, and then continuously pick up in the last two miles,” Courtemarche said. Petaluma’s strategy in winning Div. III was to narrow the gaps between their runners and keep the younger team members loose. Hugh Dowdy and Forrest Shaffer led the way with third and fourth place finishes respectively. “We had kids that stepped up and ran great,” said Petaluma coach Jim Lynch. Running challenging meets every time out during the season can make the sectional meet less imposing. “This didn’t have any more competition than the NBL,” Zellman said. Zellman and Byers have been finishing together the past two years. Byers was seventh and Zellman eighth at last year’s NCS meet. Zellman finished ahead of Byers in a league meet and again in the NBL finals. Byers was on top Saturday. “I try not to put pressure on myself. It helps to stick with him,” Byers said. “We really push each other,” Zellman said. Dowdy was the runner Luna stuck with and the plan worked so well he passed the Petaluma senior halfway into the race and took second with Dowdy finishing third. “I was just trying to stay with him, but I felt it was easy so I picked it up,” Luna said. Trying to keep up with Olson’s fast pace early hurt Dowdy later. Still, he finished with the same time as a year ago and was two places higher. “I feel I left too much in the beginning and didn’t really have a lot left,” said Dowdy, who aims to do better at the state meet. “I certainly hope so.” Racing in Div.IV gets King out from the shadow of league foes Byers and Zellman. Illness has kept King from running his best at past NCS meets, but healthy this year he ran a personal best onthe Hayward course and finished third behind two of the state’s best. “This race just goes to show you that our leagues are the best in the area,” he said. “Everyone’s fast.”
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