DFAL Cross Country Championship Sets Records

The DFAL cross country championships lived up to the hype of having State ranked DIII teams competing for individual and league titles.  Compared to the BVAL DII finals on Friday, which were also held at Hidden Valley Park, the individual girls and boys BVAL winners would not have cracked the top five at Saturday's fast paced races.  In the end, top ranked Campolindo claimed the team titles for both varsity races.

Senior Carrie Verdon from Campolindo capped her career with her fourth league title running a course record 17:30.  Verdon, who has orally committed to Colorado, broke her own course record from 2010 in dominant fashion.  Second place finisher, junior Annie Marggraff from Acalanes, was Verdon's closest competitor running a solid time of 18:31. 

Fellow Campolindo senior Thomas Joyce set a new Campolindo school record claiming his second DFAL league title with a time of 15:40.  Joyce was followed by Vinson Compestine from Campo who came in second at 15:52.

The DFAL All League teams were decided by the final race results at the championships. First place thru 7th is awarded first team all league honors and 8th place thru 14th receives second team status. A total of seven varsity "scoring" runners compete from each of the seven Diablo Foothill Athletic League schools.

Alhambra Bulldog senior Evan Quigley was awarded first team all league running a personal best 16:09 and finishing seventh overall.  Quigley was the only medalist and all league recipient for the Bulldogs on Saturday. Quigley was second team all league last year.

First team all league awards for the varsity boy's race; Thomas Joyce (Sr. Campolindo), Vinson Compestine (Sr. Campolindo), Aidan Goltra (So. Las Lomas), Keith Geiger (Sr. Campolindo), Dillon Read (Jr. Miramonte), Jamie Fehrnstrom (Sr. Miramonte), Evan Quigley (Sr. Alhambra).

First team all league awards for the varsity girl's race;  Carrie Verdon (Sr. Campolindo), Annie Marggraff (Jr. Acalanes), Megan McMillan (Jr. Campolindo), Rachel Johnson (Fr. Campolindo), Mary Orders (Fr. Campolindo), Isabelle DeMetz (Jr. Dougherty Valley), Kelly Collins (Jr. Acalanes).

Rounding out the local results for the Alhambra Bulldogs, the boy's and girl's varsity both finished their regular season in 6th place for the championships.

The second scoring runner for the boy's team was junior Joel Timbrell who placed 24th overall with a personal best 17:16.  The third and fourth scoring runners for Alhambra, Luis Haefke (17:31) and Michael Viano (17:50), were the fastest freshman varsity runners competing in the competition.   The final Bulldog scoring runner was senior Connor Bell who posted a solid 18:19 result.

The girl's were lead by freshman runners Helene Hollidge (20:08) and Allie Timbrell (21:31) who placed 17th and 31st overall.  In close pursuit was Alhambra's number three runner, junior Danielle Osborne, who recorded a 21:39 time.  Two Bulldog juniors, Anna Taylor (21:55) and Cailin Ferrel (21:59) were the final scoring runners for the girl's squad.