Palo Alto girls, boys set the pace in SCVAL cross country

Palo Alto freshman Grant Morgenfeld continued his domination of Santa Clara Valley Athletic League cross country, earning the best overall time for the fourth time in four events.

Morgenfeld helped keep the Vikings undefeated in the El Camino Division, running the 2.18 mile course at Gunn High-Bol Park in 10:34.8, as Paly beat both Mountain View, which suffered its first loss, 21-34 and Los Altos, 18-38.

The Paly girls have their own not-so-secret weapon in the duo of sophomores Elizabeth Fetter and Hillary Studdert, who have regularly finished among the top three overall throughout the season.

Fetter raced 12:18.0 and Studdert followed in 12:24.7 as the Vikings beat Los Altos, 22-33, and Mountain View, 26-29.

The top four finishers of the girls’ race were sophomores and Palo Alto’s Katherine Cheng, who raced 13:07.2 and was the Vikings’ third runner, was the lone senior among the top 12.

Morgenfeld got plenty of help from his teammates, as the top seven Paly runners finished among the top 16 overall and only the top five count in the scoring.

David Evans finished third overall with a time of 10:46.1, just ahead of Los Altos’ Hans Holst, who finished in 10:46.7. Mateo Fesslmeier was fifth in 10:53.0, followed by Vikes’ teammate Alex Gao in 10:53.8. Aleksei Seletsky completed Paly’s scoring, running 11th overall with a time of 11:15.0.

James Miller placed 12th overall and Simon Blanch was 16th.

The Gunn boys more than held their own, sweeping a four-way meet over Wilcox, Milpitas and Santa Clara.

Joshua Gehring led the Titans with the day’s 10th best time of 11:13.3. Gal Rivlin (11:49.2), freshman Jake Seley (12:01.1), Elijah Schachter (12:03.3) and Noah Milvojevic (12:03.8) also scored for the Titans.

The Gunn girls ran an incomplete team, with freshman Anna Roddin pacing the Titans with a time of 14:15.3. Alexandra Wong (14:43.2), Paige Yun (14:54.4) and Ines Garcia (18:49.7) also competed.

The SCVAL championships will be held Thursday at Baylands Park (Sunnyvale). The El Camino and De Anza Divisions will crown its own team title.

West Bay Athletic League

Justin Pretre won the boys’ race by over 45 seconds and Menlo edged visiting Sacred Heart Prep, 26-29, in a cross country meet Saturday.

The Menlo girls beat both SHP and Castilleja, each of which had incomplete teams, in the WBAL finale of a shortened season.

“I’m just grateful to be able to provide these kids an opportunity to get out there and compete with their teammates and competitors,” Menlo coach Jorge Chen said.

Pretre covered the 2.5-mile course in a time of 12:48.47. Aiden Deffner was second in 13:35.65. SHP’s Finn Roblin was third in 14:14.03. Menlo freshmen Alex Boesch, Ryan Li and Derrick Ho, finished fourth, ninth and 10th, respectively.

Castilleja’s Olivia Stinson won the girls race with a time of 16:40.09. Natalie Westermann was the top Knights finisher, placing second in 18:03.13. Kate Virsik followed in seventh and Ellie Hardegree ninth.

Water polo

Tommy Kiesling and Connor MacMitchell each scored five goals in leading the Menlo boys water polo team to a 17-10 victory over host St. Francis in a nonleague contest Saturday.

Menlo started in an offensive frame of mind, opening a 6-2 advantage in the first quarter. The Knights, implementing their counterattack, received a game-high four assists from goalkeeper Zayd Mahmoud, who also recorded nine saves.

With Mahmoud directing traffic, Menlo’s defense keyed the counterattack. Keisling recorded a game-high five steals and Greg Hilderbrand added four. Keisling and Ethan Babel each had three.

Menlo took control of the game in the third quarter and held a 14-5 lead into the fourth period.

“This team just continues to improve,” Menlo coach Jack Bowen said. “They’re working hard in practice and just having fun being together. It’s really fun to watch.”

Menlo (4-0) hosts undefeated rival Sacred Heart Prep (3-0) in a highly-anticipated West Catholic Athletic League duel Wednesday.

“This is a big week for us,” Bowen said. “We’re coming off four great wins and continue to build momentum. The season is just so compact it’s really action-packed.”

The Menlo girls dropped an 8-5 decision to visiting St. Ignatius on Saturday.

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