LODI CROSS COUNTRY CONTINUES WINNING STREAK
While Lodi girls dominate, Tokay boys also eke out crown
Two local cross country teams won Tri-City Athletic League championships on Wednesday at Lodi Lake Park. One was expected, and the other was a surprise.
The Lodi High girls team “got the bread” with all five scoring runners in the top eight finishers. Wednesday’s victory with 22 points to second-place St. Mary’s 56 gave the Flames their 16th straight league title, with some in the TCAL and some in the San Joaquin Athletic Association — a streak that dates back to 2003.
The Tokay boys, meanwhile, ran the race of their lives to beat St. Mary’s 40-46, despite the Rams’ Daniel Winter and Spencer Loewen taking the top two spots.
The victory tied Tokay and St. Mary’s top the league standings, and the trophy was given to St. Mary’s based on what was thought to be the tiebreaker — the seventh runner from each team in the final meet. After St. Mary’s celebrated, race officials double checked the league rules and found the tiebreaker was the sixth runner — Tokay’s was Alek Francovich in 14th at 17 minutes, 41 seconds, while St. Mary’s sixth runner was Carlos Natividad in 21st place at 18:04, giving the title to the Tigers.
“We sat there when he announced St. Mary’s was the winner because the tiebreaker was the seventh runner,” Tokay coach Karey Harty said. “My team and I sat there in shock, but I didn’t want to make a scene. I thought maybe I heard it wrong at the league meeting, and I thought maybe I told the kids wrong.”
But she was right, and officials from host Lodi sent messages to all the coaches informing them of the fix.
“St. Mary’s is jumping up and down, and Tokay is broken-hearted,” Wright said. “And Tokay held themselves in composure. They were perfect
gentlemen.”
Both the boys and girls races were tactical accomplishments, with similar approaches for different reasons.
Lodi’s girls were still upset that St. Mary’s freshman Sophia Lee won the second TCAL meet.
“Our girls felt like they got punched in the mouth, figuratively, and they didn’t like it,” Wright said. “They were determined to go out — Ruth was going to lead from the beginning. We suggested she just follow the St. Mary’s girl and then break away at the end, and Ruth was like, ‘No way, I’m leading wire to wire, and I’m going to try to break her and hopefully Pam can swoop on her.’
“The St. Mary’s girl was tough and she hung in there for second place, but Ruth was determined. She was on a mission today.”
Hernandez won the race by almost 30 seconds, crossing the line at 19:41. Lee was second at 20:08. Lodi’s Pamela Decko was third at 20:27, followed by Tokay’s Kari Anema in fifth at 20:37. West’s Jasmine Cochiaosue was fifth, and then it was three straight Lodi runners — Paris Heiser at 21:03, Frida Rodriguez at 21:13 and Yasmin Melendrez at 21:24 — to put all five of Lodi’s scoring runners in the top eight spots.
“I mean, we all relied on each other,” said Brooke Aberle, who was 11th overall to finish out of Lodi’s scoring but to still help push other runners deeper in the standings. “Ruth and Pam were our main leaders, and from there we pair up in groups and we just motivate each other to work harder, so this whole season has been a team effort.”
As the team says, they bagged the baguette.
“‘Let’s get this bread.’ It’s what we say to encourage each other at the start of every race,” Decko said. “It hypes us up, and shows that we are going to crush this race. Brooke started it.”
The Tokay boys also headed out strong, and a pack of runners bunched together at the front through the first half of the race. With Zacariah Kellogg finally healthy after missing or being hampered in the first two TCAL races, the Tigers felt comfortable taking a strong start.
“They knew they had to be up front,” Harty said. “The thing is, they’ve been capable of it all season, but we don’t have enough depth. If one of them is off, it doesn’t work.”
But it worked on Wednesday — Tokay’s Josue Herrera was fourth at 16:57, followed by Abel DeLaCruz in sixth at 17:09, Kellogg in seventh at 17:15, Homero DeLaCruz in 10th at 17:20 and Manuel Munoz in 13th at 17:39.
Then there was Francovich, the tiebreaker, in 14th place, pushing a steady pace throughout the race.
Tokay’s girls team, with one of their top runners done for the season in Kali Anema, fielded only four runners, not enough for a full team. With the hopes of a team title out of the question, Harty ran a pair of her sophomore runners at the frosh-soph level instead of varsity.
“We just had to switch our motivation from team thinking to individual thinking,” Harty said. “They’re totally on track. It’s going to be an individual performance from here on out.”
The Tigers ran some good races, with Kari Anema in fourth at 20:37 and Katiana Reedy in ninth at 21:30. With Wednesday’s team forfeit, Tokay slid from second in the league standings to fifth, with St. Mary’s placing second.
The Lodi boys ran a solid race as well, and placed third on Wednesday with 99 points, behind a fifth-place finish from Lucas Fonda at 17:03. Jesus Santillan was 18th at 17:57, Nicolas Rasiolo was 24th at 18:10, Liam Epperson-Dorsa was 25th at 18:11 and Yuan Shi was 27th at 18:14.
“It hasn’t been the year that we wanted, and I just said let’s go out and run as hard as we can, and I was really proud of them today,” Wright said. “They battled, and they did everything they could with the ability that they had.”
OAKLAND — The Golden State Warriors coasted to a 144122 victory over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday at Oracle Arena because of a prolific offensive.
Warriors guard Stephen Curry had a team-leading 51 points, while shooting 15-of-24 from the field, 11-of-16 from 3point range and 10-of-10 from the free-throw line in 32 minutes and missed the whole fourth quarter. Warriors forward Kevin Durant scored 30 points on a 13-of-18 clip. Warriors guard Klay Thompson added 19 points on 8-of-17 shooting, despite going 1-of-5 from 3-point range.
Curry has logged six 50point games in his NBA career. Curry has opened the 2018-19 season posting at least five 3pointers in each of the Warriors’ five games. This marks the longest steak of games to begin a season in NBA history, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Curry fell short of his career-high 54-point performance in New York on Feb. 27, 2013. Curry tied for his third best scoring performance behind his 53 points in New Orleans (Oct. 31, 2015) and 54 in New York (Feb. 27, 2013)
The Warriors (4-1) have defeated the Wizards (1-3) for the 14th time in their last 16 matchups. The Wizards were led by guards Bradley Beal (23) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (17 points).