The Crystal Springs course (Hallmark Park in Belmont) has been around since the late 60s with the current course established in 1971 (photo above thanks to Hank Lawson). The current course record of 14:28 was set in 1973 by Mitch Kingery of San Carlos. He also ran a 2:23:47 marathon as a sophomore in high school which is an impressive 5:29 per mile. Jay Marden of Mission San Jose ran 14:28.4 at the 1980 NorCal meet which is the closest anyone has come to breaking the record. The Central Coast Section (CCS) has used the course as their championship venue for many consecutive years until they started alternating the host course in 2002 with Toro Park in Salinas. With this being an odd year, the CCS championship will be held in Belmont which means it will be a full house (over 2700 athletes) this Saturday at the 41st Annual Crystal Springs Invitational.
Crystal Springs Race Schedule
9:00 am Boys Junior Varsity - Blue
9:30 am Boys Junior Varsity -- Gold
10:00 am Girls Varsity
10:30 am Girls Championship Varsity
11:00 am Boys Varsity
11:30 am Girls Junior Varsity
12:00 pm Boys Championship Varsity
12:30 pm Boys Sophomore
1:00 pm Girls Frosh/Soph
1:30 pm Boys Freshman
The girls' Varsity races will be divided into two races with with regular Varsity race at 10am followed by the championship Varsity race at 10:30am. The Varsity race will feature 47 teams that are entered to race. The favorite to win team title in the first Varsity race will be Archbishop Mitty. They are currently ranked 3rd overall in CCS behind Aptos and Santa Cruz which means they are the top ranked Division II team. They are the defending CCS champions and won their first league meet over league and divisional foe, St. Francis. The leading contenders for the individual title will include Julia Lemak (Mitty), Caroline Gee (Cupertino), Hana Marsheck (Woodside Priory), Natalie Novitsky (Sacred Heart Prep) and Eliza Crowder (Menlo).
The girls' championship Varsity race will feature the top two ranked CCS teams, Aptos and Santa Cruz. They are both ranked at the state level in their respective divisions and will see plenty of each other this year as they both reside in the same league, Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League (SCCAL). The field will include other solid teams who will be state contenders as well including Alameda, Del Oro (SJS), Dougherty Valley (NCS), Nevada Union (SJS), San Lorenzo Valley, St. Francis (Mt. View), and Tamalpais (NCS).
The overwhelming favorite to win the race will be Santa Cruz senior, Cate Ratliff. She has already broken the Toro Park course record and had the 2nd fastest time at the Stanford Invitational behind Fiona O'Keeffe of Davis. The current female course record (16:30.6) on the Crystal Springs course was established at the 1979 Kinney Western Regional by Ellen Lyons of Bishop Kelly, Boise, Idaho. Ratliff will have several chances this year to scare that mark and Saturday's race will be her first shot. Chasing Ratliff will be teammate Mari Friedman, Marea Zlatunich (Aptos), Niki Iyer (Harker), Kristen Leung (Lowell-SF) and Abbey Meck (San Lorenzo Valley).
The first boys' Varsity race will actually feature a Junior Varsity team. Bellarmine has a very deep and talented team that boasts over 200 boys. At the recent Stanford Invitational, Bellarmine tested their top 7 runners in the seeded race and finished a very respectable 3rd place behind nationally ranked Jesuit and Southern Section power, Arcadia. The Bells also competed in the Division I race and their next 7 runners won that race, finishing just ahead of a strong Palo Alto team. Individually,
The boys' championship Varsity race will be smaller as far as entered teams but definitely not short of talent. The team favorite will be Bellarmine which will test out the CCS course for the first time this year. They easily won the first WCAL meet with a dominating 26 point effort at Baylands Park. This year's Bellarmine team is young compared to many of their senior loaded teams in the past. Chasing the Bells will be fellow league rival, St. Francis (Mt. View), 2014 Division IV podium team Scotts Valley and the 6th ranked CCS team, Willow Glen.
The race for the individual title at this invitational may be a one man show. The favorite at this meet may come from an unlikely section as Salem Bouhassoun of Mission has faced some competition and finished in the top 5 at the Earlybird, De La Salle and Stanford Invitationals. He also ran 9:14.67 at last year's California state Track and Field meet. Chasing him will be the Bellarmine and Willow Glen packs and the rest of the number one runners of competing teams (Xander Olivero, St. Francis, Mt View, Nolan Dozier, Ann Sobrato, Neil Braganza, Dougherty Valley, Elijah Changco, San Benito and John Ross, Scotts Valley) aiming to get in the low 15s on the fabled cross country course.