21250 Stevens Creek Blvd.
Cupertino, CA 95014 • 408.864.5678
Cupertino, CA 95014 • 408.864.5678
|
Welcome
Contact Information for De Anza XC and Coach Nick Mattis Head Coach Nick Mattis Phone: 408.864.5731 Address: Dons earn another trip to Frenso The De Anza Women had another wonderful performance at Crystal Springs Cross Country Course and after placing 3rd place in the Northern California Championships a year ago this years team topped them by finishing as the runner-ups. They lost by only 5 points to Hartnell College who ran the best performance of their season to continue the back and forth battle of these conference foes. De Anza placed three women on the 2nd Team All-NorCal Team. Kirsti Whitmyre ran a lifetime best time for collegiate cross country to place 8th overall with a 19:18. Close behind her was Kim Kilgroe 12th and Jessica Paranthaman 13th who also ran sub 20 minutes for the second week in a row on this hilly 2.95 mile course. Kilgroe ran 19:41 and Paranthaman came in at 19:43. The next competitor in for De Anza was Luisa Westley who placed 20th with a 20:07. The fifth and final scoring member of the team running a lifetime best time for cross country was Christina Pando who ran a 20:28 finishing in 31st place. The next member of the team to come if for De Anza was Rebekah Phillips who has continued to improve each week after getting a late start this fall. Phillips ran a 20:57 finishing in 37th place and displacing at least one top 5 runner from all but two of the teams competing at the championships. Yasamin Yazdi rounded out the team of seven with a very good time of 23:28 and displacing top five runners from six of the competing teams. The women were coming into the meet in a four way dogfight for the three trophies available, but the men had a different type of pressure on them. The men came in ranked 8th in a close 5 way battle for 3 spots, which would earn a trip the state meet in Fresno. If the men could hold on to a top ten performance it would be the third consecutive year De Anza would have sent a team to the state meet a feat that has not been done since the early 1980's. The pressure would also mount during the week as illness took number one runner Abiy Gebrekristos out of action all week. Having not practiced once during the week and taking medicine the team was unsure of what Gebrekristos would have to offer. Gebrekristos came though with a gutsy performance and although not as good as his best definitely good enough to lead the team to a 9th place finish out of 17 complete teams and earn that tough trip back to Frenso. He finished in 22:05 and 21st place for the team on the 4.19 mile course. Teammate Clifford Crum came back to overcome some nagging injuries that hampered his performance at the Conference meet to run a much better 22:23 and finished in 27th place. The next four runners for the Dons have been interchangable over the past couple weeks and freshman Jose Gurrola stepped up today to take the third spot for the Dons finishing 49th with a 23:02. Gene Burinsky led in a close group of Dons to take the fourth spot running a 23:16 and a 58th place finish. Rounding out the top 5 was Daniel Brody, who is finally coming back from the flu that held him out for almost 3 weeks in the middle of the season, finishing in 23:39 and taking 66th place in the field of 118 runners. David Rios was the sixth runner for the Dons, finishing in 22nd with a 23:44. The final Don was Caleb Escobar running 24:58 to finish in 87th place. The Dons will have two weeks to get prepared for the state championship, which will be held at Woodward Park on the north side of Fresno November 21st. The womens race will begin at 10:00 AM and the men will follow at 11:00. Back to Back Titles for the Women! The De Anza Women came into the conference championships at Crystal Springs Cross Country Course as defending champions and as underdogs to a number 1 ranked Hartnell team that had beaten them almost a month earlier on the same course. However, the Lady Dons came with revenge on their mind. The veteran trio of Jessica Paranthaman, Kirsti Whitmyre, and Kim Kilgroe took the pace out early and only one Hartnell Panther could match them. Jessica Paranthaman ended up hanging on for the victory with a time of 19:15 and earning the title of conference champion for her first ever individual victory in a cross country meet, holding off a strong challenge from Hartnell's number one runner. Kirsti Whitmyre and Kim Kilgroe were not far behind Paranthaman finishing 3rd and 4th also running personal bests with 19:22 and 19:30 respectively. Freshman Luisa Westley came in for a 6th place finish giving De Anza 4 of the top 6 places and 4 first team all-conference representatives. After 3 more Hartnell runners came in Christina Pando sealed the victory with her 10th place finish to help De Anza win by a score of 24-31. Pando was followed by Rebekah Phillips in 14th place to join her on the second team all-conference team, giving De Anza 6 all-conference athletes for the second straight year. Jen Nieh, Kate Braham and Yasamin Yazdi were the other members of De Anza's team to earn their second straight Coast Conference Championships. The men's team also had a solid race. Dealing with some sickness on the team the men came through with a third place finish one of the highest finishes in 25 years for the men in the Coast Conference Championships. The men were led by conference runner-up Abiy Gebrekristos who ran a personal best 21:47 and trailed only the number one runner in the state Daniel Tapia from Hartnell. Clifford Crum who stuggled a bit still ran good enough to take 13th place and earn second team all-conference honors. David Rios stepped up big for the Dons and ran a strong PR to pick up the team and help the Dons to their 3rd place finish. He was followed closely by Gene Burinsky as they finished in 19th and 20th overall. Jose Gurrola (23rd) and Daniel Brady (24th) came in close to them to help pack up and hold off as strong charge by West Valley and beat them by 10 points. The teams will return to Crystal Springs on Saturday November 7th at 10:00 AM for the Northern California Championships where the top 10 teams will move on to the state championships in Fresno. Pat Ryan Invitational Finally!!! The women's team came out victorious in its last regular season tune up before the championship season. After a long year of close calls the women left no doubt this time. Placing first place with a team total of 24 points, beating second place Sierra College by 30 points. The women were led by both Kirsti Whitmyre and Kim Kilgroe who both came in with a time of 19:25 and placing 2nd and 3rd respectively only six seconds behind the winner. Jessica Paranthaman was next with a 4th place finish. Christina Pando and Luisa Westley came in 8th and 9th overall to round out the top 5 scoring team for De Anza. Rebekah Phillips came in next with and 11th place finish for the ladies and Yasamin Yazdi was 17th to take the 7th spot for the women. Jen Nieh and Kate Braham also competed for the Dons finishing in 19th and 22nd place in the field of 33. The men were led by an outstanding performance from Clifford Crum running a 20:52 on the four mile course, and placing 2nd overall in the field of 46 men. The men placed in third place behind Diablo Valley and Santa Rosa College for meet. The teams will take the next week and a half off from competitions to prepare for the Coast Conference Championships, which will be held on Oct. 28th at 2:30 at Crystal Springs in Belmont. William Judd Invitational The cross country teams woke up early and traveled to Sierra College in Rocklin, CA to run at the Gary Judd Invitational. Five teams competed in each division and the Dons came up just short in each race, by placing second in both races. The teams came in looking for a good workout and an improvement in times from the last time the teams competed at Sierra College the first week of the season and for most of the athletes this was accomplished. The women's team ran the first part of the race as a group working on pack running before going on their own to finish the race. This is also the main reason the women ended up placing second. Winchester College, a four-year school from Salt Lake City, Utah, built too big a lead for the ladies to chase them down at the end and came up one point short in the team race. The top 6 runners for De Anza all placed in the top 15 with Kim Kilgroe leading the way with a 4th place finish. Jessica Paranthaman was next in 6th place, followed by Kirsti Whitmyre and Luisa Westley who finished in 8th and 9th place respectively. Christina Pando was the fifth Don across the line in 12th place winning her first collegiate medal. Rebekah Phillips was next for the Dons in 15th place and Jen Nieh was 21st rounding out the scoring team for De Anza. All of the top seven either ran a seasons best or had a significant improvement from the last time they completed the course. The men also finished in second place in the team race losing to Fresno City College. The team was once again led by Abiy Gebrekristos who finished runner-up in the meet missing the top honors by 10 seconds. Clifford Crum was next in for the Dons with a sixth place finish. A close group of three came in next for the Dons only 21 seconds apart. David Rios ran one of the best races of his season finishing in 12th place, just ahead of Jose Gurrola in 13th and Gene Burinsky in 15th. Daniel Brody was next in placing 18th and Peter Chew also breaking thru in this meet finished in 22nd place to round out the top seven for De Anza. The Dons will be at Santa Rosa College this Friday for their last tuneup meet before the championship season begins. Crystal Springs Invitational For the second week in a row the De Anza men's and women's teams outran last season's teams but the results showed again how much tougher this season is for the Dons. The Womens team was much faster as a team for the average time it took the ladies to complete the 2.95 mile course, however unlike last season when the women won the Crystal Springs Invitational this years team settled for third out of the 20 teams to enter runners in this meet losing to Hartnell College who ran their best meet of the year and traditional southern powerhouse Cerritos College by one point for second. The sophomore's from last years team stepped forward and flexed some muscle in this meet. Kim Kilgroe, Jessica Paranthaman, and Kirsti Whitmyre all earned themselves a t-shirt finishing 10th, 11th, and 13th overall in the meet out of the 113 runners to complete the course. Luisa Westley and Christina Pando dealing with some injuries rounded out the top five for De Anza. For the men again they ran the meet in a much faster time than the top five did a year ago, however they placed 6th place rather than 3rd like they did a year ago. The team was led by Abiy Gebrekristos, who is starting to run with some maturity and is improving on a weekly basis. Gebrekristos ran almost 45 seconds faster than he ran this course the year before finishing in 6th place overall. He was joined by Clifford Crum and Daniel Brody in receiving some free t-shirts as all three ran under 23:00 for the 4.19 mile course. The rest of the Don men struggled a bit with the hilly course, but David Rios and Gene Burinsky ran 4th and 5th on the team respectively to round out the scoring team. The Dons will travel Saturday to Sierra College again to run in the Gary Judd Invitational at 11 AM for their next meet. Lou Vasquez Invitational The Men and Women traveled north to Golden Gate park in San Francisco this past Thursday in some new weather conditions. After having dealt with extreme heat and a ton of sunshine the past couple weeks, the team ran in a blanket of fog and much cooler temperatures. The teams both ran much faster this past week than the previous two years they competed at this meet but this was an extremely tough meet this year. The men's team had PR's for all of the top seven runners. This meet is not traditionally scored but is a combination of the the top five runners times added together. The men's top five ran three minutes and four seconds faster than last season's team in this meet but actually placed one place lower to finish in 9th place as a team out of the 17 teams competing. The team was led by Abiy Gebrekristos, who finished the four mile course in 20:57 and in 17th place overall. He was followed closely by Clifford Crum in 19th place with a 21:01. The next four runners came across in fairly close group. Daniel Brody was 60th with a 22:00, Gene Burinsky was 61st with a 22:01, newcomer Jose Gurrola in his first college meet was 78th with a 22:31 and David Rios was 83rd with a 22:41. The rest of the Dons competing were: Caleb Escobar 108th - 23:59, Matt Montez 111th - 24:09, Ryan Sawaya 116th - 24:27, Peter Chew 121st - 24:49, and Bereket Shibeshi (also in his first collegiate meet) 141st - 28:53. The women also statistically had a great day but the results were the same as last season with a third place finish losing to Los Angeles Trade Tech and American River colleges in the 19 team field. Like the men the top 5 women ran three minutes and 26 seconds faster than last seasons conference championship team. They were led again by Kim Kilgroe who ran a 5K PR with a time of 19:41 and placed 13th overall. She was followed by Jessica Paranthaman in 17th place with a time of 20:14, Louisa Westley 25th place with a time of 20:36, Kirsti Whitmyre 28th place - 20:43, and Christina Pando 42nd place - 21:12. The other runners for the ladies were: Yasamin Yazdi 78th - 23:00, Jen Nieh 91st - 24:40, and Kate Braham 100th - 28:58. This meet marks the half way point of the regular season and the teams look to be better this season and are set up to have a successful second half if they keep working hard and getting better. The teams will travel to Belmont friday to run in the Crystal Springs Invitational, which will be the site of this years Coast Conference Championships and the NorCal Championships. Mills Invitational The Men's and Women's teams took on some new challenges Saturday morning at the Mills College Invitational in Oakland. The women started off the day and were not sure what to expect with Kirsti Whitmyre not running for the team and Christina Pando coming back from a knee injury two weeks earlier. Also the women saw some new competition as they were the only community college in the race to field a full team. Numerous 4-year schools De Anza does not usually run against were at this meet. The women did a fantastic job of overcoming these obstacles to place second as team. Sophomore Kim Kilgroe led the team medalling by finishing 3rd overall out of 90 runners. Jessica Paranthaman was next finishing 14th, followed by Luisa Westley in 20th, and Christina Pando in 25th. Yasamin Yazdi again stepped up to be the 5th runner in Whitmyre's absence finishing in 57th place but running 30 seconds faster than she completed the course a year ago. Jen Nieh was the sixth runner for the team running a personal best time and Kate Braham rounded out the team as the 7th runner. The women place second only to NCAA Division II San Francisco State University. For the men they faced all the same challenges as the women going against four year schools, but they also faced another unique challenge in the fact the race was one mile longer than they normally race at. Abiy Gebrekristos finished in 4th overall and earned a medal out of 84 runners. Clifford Crum was next for the team placing 8th place, followed by Daniel Brody in 12th, Gene Burinsky in 30th place and David Rios in 40th place made up the scoring team that also finished in second place again coming up short to San Francisco State University. Caleb Escobar and Matt Montez finished 6th and 7th on the team displacing numerous runners from other schools to help out the De Anza scoring. Peter Chew and Ryan Sawaya also ran in the meet running the best races of their seasons so far. The teams will be starting classes this coming week and have a short practice week when they will return to action this Thursday at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in the Lou Vasquez Invitational beginning at 3:30. Fresno Invitational The men's and women's cross country teams traveled Friday afternoon to prepare the 2009 Fresno Invitational. This was the one and only overnight meet for the entire team who after a short workout to preview the course at Fresno's Woodward Park spent the night bonding and competiting over some games and pizza. The next morning the Dons were all business. In what will be the biggest and toughest competition all year until the state meet the women came away with a 10th place finish out of the 28 teams that entered athletes, and was the third fastest northern California team. Running with only six of their ten girls they met the challenge fairly well and saw a good deal of improvement from the previous week. The team was again led by Kim Kilgroe who finished first for the team with a 20:26 over a minute improvement from the last time she ran this course at the 2008 state finals. Jessica Paranthaman was next in running nine seconds faster than the previous fall and was followed closely by Luisa Westley running in her second cross country meet ever and improving greatly from the previous weeks time. Kirsti Whitmyre also saw a great improvement in her time finishing as the number four this week on the team from last week at Sierra. With last weeks number 5 Christina Pando resting an injury, sophomore Yasamin Yazdi ran almost two minutes faster than the state championships last fall to make up the difference and help the women's team to the 10th place finish. The only other athlete competing for De Anza's women this week was Jen Nieh who ran almost 3 minutes faster than the previous week and showed she is improving greatly. On the men's side the Dons finished in 15th place out of 27 teams entered. Abiy Gebrekristos finished in 41st place overall out of the 246 men who completed the circuit. He was followed by Clifford Crum in 58th, Daniel Brody 101st, Gene Burinsky 142nd, and David Rios 146th to round out the scoring team. The men's and women's teams will see some new challenges this next week, as they travel to Mills College in Oakland next Saturday to race against a number of 4-year colleges and universities. The women's race begins at 10:30 and the men's race at 11:15 and the race will be held on Mills campus. Wolverine Invitational The 2009 Cross Country Season got underway at the Wolverine Invitational at Sierra College in Rocklin, CA Saturday September 5th. In the small meet that hosted five women's teams and four men's teams the De Anza squads came up just short in their championship bids. Both the men and women lost by narrow margins to Sacramento City College. The women came up four points short of first place and the men were ten points short. The women beat host Sierra College who was the only other college to field a full squad. The men beat William Jessup, a four-year school, and Delta College. Both teams had four individuals who earned medals by placing in the top 10. For the guys sophomore, Abiy Gebrekristos finished second overall and was joined by three freshman Clifford Crum, Daniel Brody and Gene Burinsky as the male medalists. For the women sophomore's, Kim Kilgroe, Kirsti Whitmyre, Jessica Paranthaman and freshman Luisa Westley all medaled. The teams face a much bigger challenge coming up next when they travel to the Fresno Invitational September 12th in what is the state championship preview meet.
2008 season team highlights2008 Women's Cross Country Team 2008 Coast Conference Champions 
Back Row (L to R): Coach Nick Mattis, Felicia Costa, Maura Villanueva, Devin Powell, Yasamin Yazdi, Kate Braham, Stephanie Nguyen, Coach JJ Noble Front Row (L to R): Jessica Paranthaman, Kim Kilgroe, Lauren Rosiles, Kirsti Whitmyre, Vanessa James, Kim Chew Women
Men
2007 season team highlights
Individually Cynthia Chaidez received All-State Honors with her 12th place finish at the State Championships. Other top performances were Angie Sandoval, Lauren Rosiles and Chaidez receiving All-Conference Awards for the Women. For the Men, Trevor Addison was named to the All-Conference Team. |
||||
|
|
About De Anza
