The Cupertino Courier

Sports

Shiokawa is running strong for Pioneers

By MIKE BARNHART

As high school cross country runners enter the back stretch of the 2006 season, Cupertino junior Sumika Shiokawa continues to be one of the Central Coast Section's best female competitors.

The prolific Pioneer was at it again on Oct. 19, claiming second out of 129 runners at the Crystal Springs Center Meet in Belmont. Shiokawa covered the 2.95-mile course in 18:37, trailing only winner Mary Reynolds of Mountain View.

Shiokawa's time improved her school record for the Crystal Springs course by four seconds. She had run 18:41 nine days earlier at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League Preview, while winning the junior girls race.

Shiokawa and the rest of the league will return to Crystal Springs on Oct. 31 for the league finals. Each division will crown five individual champions.

Shiokawa, who placed fourth in CCS Division III last season and 23rd in the state meet, opened the season by winning three of her first four meets, local runs on the campuses of Lynbrook, Saratoga and Fremont. Then she followed up a second place at Santa Clara's Central Park with top-five efforts at the Stanford Invitational, the Clovis Invitational at Fresno's Woodward Park and the Monterey Bay Invitational in Salinas.

On successive Saturdays, Shiokawa ran fifth out of 245 runners at Stanford on Sept. 30, then finished fourth (18:59) among CCS girls on the 5,000-meter Woodward Park. A week later, she was fourth in a three-miler at Toro County Park, the site of November's CCS championships.

In last week's Center Meet, Cupertino junior Abiy Gebrekristos was seventh among varsity boys with a personal record of 16:07. Homestead sophomore Nick Oliver (16:32) finished 13th.

The Pioneers' junior varsity boys captured second in team competition, paced by the strong runs of freshmen Ryo Kubozono (third) and Derek Zhou (sixth).