Cross Country’s first meet in San Francisco two weeks ago resulted in some great performances by our varsity teams.  But at the 25th DLS Nike Invitational this past Saturday it was time for the youngsters to shine.  All runners braved scorching temperatures on the 2 and 3 miles courses at Newhall Park in Concord.  This 25th version of this invitational drew teams from all over the bay area including Cross Country power houses such as Bellarmine Prep, Jesuit, and Redwood.

Despite stiff competition the Acalanes boys and girls Frosh/Soph teams turned in outstanding performances.  Tyler Hunt, Loic Windfuhr Durand, and Bennett Dodge finished 1st, 2nd, and 5th, respectively to lead the boys F/S team to a 3rd place finish.  In this race, the Dons handedly defeated some very competitive teams like Redwood, De La Salle and Campolindo.  The Dons were bested in this race only by Cross Country powerhouses Bellarmine Prep and Jesuit.  Lucas Hasse, Lawson Hollar, Andreas Ramirez, Nathan Krishnan, Peter Buchel, and Jack Dunne rounded out this medal winning team.

Lauren Yee and Caroline Crossland finished 1st and 13th respectively to lead the F/S girls to an outstanding 4th place finish.  Lauren Yee’s 1st place finish was a commanding performance in which she was the only girl to break 13 minutes in this hot and hilly 2 mile race.  Elle Cassleman, Katrina Ortman, Aysha Craig, and Emma Uffelman rounded out the great performance by this team.

The next meet for the Dons is the Capital Cross Challenge on the 28th in Sacramento.  This is a highly competitive varsity meet in which the Dons will enter 10 varsity boys and 9 varsity girls.