Cross Country Runs to Success at CCS

Eight splendid Lincoln Cross Country runners headed to Toro Park in Salinas to compete in the 2014 Central Coast Section (CCS) Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Nov. 15. The students who competed were Liv Brashears, Jose Piña, Frank Zhou, Daniel Cervantes, Tyler Lu, Luis Ponce, Yaseen Shokry and Mohamed Salim.

CCS races were divided into 5 divisions, split amongst boys and girls. The boys from Lincoln competed in Division 2, and Lincoln’s only girl competed in Division 1. All runners ran a 3-mile course.

Liv Brashears, in grade 10, was the only girl from Lincoln to compete in CCS. Brashears told Lion Tales, “For me going to CCS, I feel like my hard work paid off. It was fun to go because of the competition.”
She placed 49th out of 130 runners in Division 1 Girls, with a time of 21:04. She added, “If I could go back to the race I would push harder at the end, but overall I am proud of my time.”

Jose Piña, in grade 12, came in 2nd place in Division 2 Boys with a time of 15:39, and was the only Lincoln runner who qualified for State Championships. He told Lion Tales, “For me, it’s a blessing to be there because it’s like you work hard, but only certain people qualify. It’s a different level of competition when you qualify.”

Piña will represent Lincoln at State finals on November 29th at Woodward Park in Fresno. Piña also accepted a guaranteed 4 year scholarship from San Jose State University. He will be running for the Track/Cross Country team at SJSU. There will be a signing event held at Lincoln sometime after Thanksgiving, to congratulate his achievements.

Frank Zhou, in grade 11, said, “It’s always exciting to go because there’s so many people at your level.” Zhou came in 31st, with a time of 16:57. He told Lion Tales, “I feel like I could have done better.”

Daniel Cervantes, in grade 12, finished the race in 81st place with time of 18:13.

Tyler Lu, in grade 12, finished in 84th place with a time of 18:17. Regarding his time, he said, “I felt good. Time wasn’t the greatest but I ended on a pretty good note – I guess everyone else here did. I trained hard enough… If that’s the best I could do then I’m fine with it.”

Luis Ponce, in grade 12, came in 93rd place with a time of 18:28. He said, “I had a good race, but not the best.”

Yaseen Shokry, in grade 10, finished in 104th place with a time of 18:56, and Mohamed Salim, also in grade 10, finished in 108th place with a time of 19:34.

Lion Tales spoke with the Cross Country coach, Coach Carlos. He said, “Overall we had an outstanding team. We performed pretty well on CCS.”

He added that “the future is going to be bright. We’re going to step it up, and do a lot better next year. We’re gonna build up from what we did this year.”

The coach continued, “We’re definitely going to miss our seniors that are leaving. They’ve done a great job, most of them for for four years, and they’ve come a long way. They’ve grown a whole lot.”

Update: Jose Piña placed 28th with a time of 15:47 in the State meet, November 29, at Woodward Park in Fresno.