2005 St. Francis High School Boys Cross Country

	2005 Boys Cross Country
A Commitment to Excellence

State Division 3 4th
CCS Division 3 Champions!
WCAL Champions!

Quote of the Week

"I always loved running...it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs."
– Jesse Owens, sprinter, world-record holder and hero of the 1936 Olympics

Picture of the Week
		Ben Sitler – Seventh at XC Nationals For his final cross country race as a St. Francis student, Ben Sitler left the last for the best. At the Foot Locker Cross Country Nationals in San Diego on December 12, Ben finished in seventh place with a time of 15:16 (4:54 per mile). The place will earn Ben All American status this year. It has been a real pleasure for all of us at St. Francis XC to be able to watch and work with Ben, and Princeton nows gets his talent, work ethic and sportsmanship for the next four year. Good luck Ben.

News

12/20/05	More Foot Locker Pictures Available More Pictures of Ben at the Foot Locker Nationals have been added, including links to the official photo websites.
12/20/05	Ben Sitler Named CCS Runner of the Year The San Jose Mercury News named Ben Sitler Senior Distnace runner of the Year and Runner of the Year as he headed up the All-CCS Team announced on December 15. The Mercury stated "Sitler ran away with the West Catholic Athletic League individual title on Nov. 2 at Crystal Springs in Belmont, covering the 2.95-mile course in 14 minutes, 59 seconds, half a minute faster than his nearest competitor. He dominated again at Crystal Springs in the Central Coast Section Division III finals on Nov. 12, finishing with a 27-second edge on Willow Glen's Marcos Corona, a member of the All-Mercury News first team. Four league titles and two section championships later, the Lancers boast one of the strongest programs in the state and one of the nation's top runners." The complete story and the full All-CCS Team are listed here.
12/10/05	Ben Sitler 7^th at Foot Locker Nationals!!!! For the first time since 1985 a CCS runner has finished in the top 10 at the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships. This past Saturday Ben Sitler finished seventh in a stellar time of 15:16 for the 5,000-meter course. Ben was just 14 seconds behind National Champion A.J. Acosta’s time of 15:02. Ben’s time works out to 4:54 per mile. A fantastic finish to a great year and a spectacular Cross Country career at St. Francis. Full Results and Pictures are now available.
12/04/05	Ben Second at Footlocker West Regional Meet on Saturday This past Saturday (December 3) Ben Sitler ran in the Footlocker Western Regional Cross Country Meet at Mt. Sac in Walnut (Southern California). He finished the 5K course in a time of 15:39 – just 1 second behind winner A.J. Acosta in the Seeded Boys Race. Based upon his finish, he will be competing in the Footlocker National Cross Country Championships to be held this weekend (December 10) at Balboa Park in San Diego. Ben’s time roughly converts to a 14:49 at Crystal Springs (just to give you and idea how fast he was going). Hamster Bob also made the trip to Mt. Sac and competed in the Junior Race. Kyle ran an very quick 17:28 for fourteenth place.
11/30/05	Mike Calcagno – Runner and Kicker… An article about our very own "Calc" appeared today in the San Jose Mercury News pointing out the Mike not only runs really fast, but can also kick a football quite well. Read the article here.
11/27/05	Perusing Victory With Honor Award At the California State Meet in Fresno last week Senior Ben Sitler was honored by the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) with an award for Outstanding Sportsmanship. After finishing second in the Division 3 race Ben remained at the end of the finish chute and shook the hand of ever competitor in the race. This was not new for Ben, as he had done the same at many other races this year. We all know that Ben is a fierce competitor but also a student of the sport and a great sportsman and gentleman. Its nice to see the rest of the State acknowledge it as well.
11/28/05	Track Season is Just Around the Corner… The Track season is not that far away. Check out the 2006 St. Francis Track Website and stay tuned for updates. Our first meet is Friday, February 24 against California High School at St. Francis. California HS is the home of track phenom David Klech and about 120 other athletes. Our first WCAL meet this year is against SI on March 8 – so start getting ready now!
11/27/05	California State Meet, D3, Fourth Place! The Varsity Boys finished in fourth place at the California State Cross Country Championships at Woodward park in Fresno on Saturday. The team was lead, as it has been most of the year, by Senior Ben Sitler. Ben finished in second place in the Division 3 race with a time of 15:29. His time was the eight fastest time of any runner in any division, and the fastest CCS time by 24 seconds. Ben was followed by fellow senior Sam Pompei (43 in 16:32) and Sam’s sophomore brother Phil Pompei (44 also in 16:32). It was Sam’s best race of the year. Senior Eric Johnson was fourth for the team (60 in 16:41) followed by junior Kyle "Hamster" Stewart (70 in 16:45). Rounding out the team in another dual time were juniors Mike Calcagno (100 in 17:07) and Alex Blease (101 in 17:07) The team time of 1:21:59 ties for first the fastest team time in St. Francis history. The 1998 D3 State Championship team turned in the other 1:21:59 time. Individually on the SFHS All-Time Woodward Park List, Ben moves from second to first, Sam (20 to 14), Phil (15), Eric (43 to 21), Kyle (47 to 23), Mike (36) and Alex (34 to 37). Eric improved his PR on the course by 47 seconds, Kyle by 58 and Sam by 17. Alex improved his by 5 seconds and Ben by 3. It was the first time Phil and Mike ran the course.
11/13/05	CCS D3 Champions! The St. Francis Varsity Boys team won the Division 3 Central Coast Section Championships this past Saturday at Crystal Springs in Belmont. The team’s finished of 1-13-15-16-18-20-34 was good enough to beat last year’s champion and fellow WCAL team St. Ignatius by 11 points. Along with Ben Sitler’s first place finish, the team put 6 runner in front of SI’s fourth runner, and 7 in front of their fifth, to secure the victory. Ben ran his usual great race to finish first in 15:03. He was followed by Philip Pompei (13 in 16:22), Mike Calcagno (15 in 16:25), Eric Johnson (16 in 16:26), Sam Pompei (18 in 16:30), Alex Blease (20 in 16:32) and Kyle Stewart (34 in 17:13). The team earned a return trip to the State Meet in Fresno over the Thanksgiving weekend. The team time of 80:46 earned them the #14 spot on the St. Francis All-Time Team Time List for Crystal Springs. The team’s time from the WCAL finals of 80:30 remains as the fastest time for any team that rasn at Crystal Springs this year, and is #11 on the SFHS list. This is the second year in a row that St. Francis has the fastest team time at Crystal.
11/09/05	Cross Country End-of-Season Meeting November 29. We will be having our Cross Country End-of-Season Meeting on Tuesday, November 29 at 6:00pm in Room 501. We need all athletes and their parents to attend. There will be refreshments, awards, pictures, and a summary of the season from the coaches and some of the athletes.
11/07/05	CCS Championships Saturday, November 12 at Crystal St. Francis Varsity Boys will be running in the Central Coast Section (CCS) Cross Country Championships this Saturday. The boys run at 1:15 in the Division III race with St. Ignatius from the WCAL, among other teams..
11/02/05	Varsity Boys WCAL Champions Again! Continuing in the fine tradition of the brutal WCAL League XC Championships, the St. Francis Lancers Varsity narrowly beat St. Ignatius 45 to 49 to capture the WCAL title for the fourth year in a row. SF and SI were tied coming into the final meet of the League season. The team was once again lead by Senior Sensation Ben Sitler. Ben ran a 14:59 ALL BY HIMSELF to gain a second spot on the All-Time Crystal Springs List (there has only been 80 times run under 15:00 in the 33-year history of the course). Ben was followed by Phil Pompei (8 in 16:17), and a great grouping of Mike Calcagno (11 in 16:23), Eric Johnson (12 in 16:24) and Kyle Stewart (13 in 16:27). As with last year the Lancer’s Team Time of 80:30 is the fastest time of this year run by any team on the course. It is also ties as the eleventh fastest team time in St. Francis history. The Junior Varsity team was lead again by the two Kevins (Murphy and Rouse), with Kevin Murphy taking second overall in this week’s race with a time of 17:02 (which would have placed him twenty-fifth in the Varsity race). The Sophomore team, helped by the return from the JV races in WCAL I and II of Gates, Ong and Lorenz, finished fourth in the league. Tim Gates lead the charge this week with a time of 17:54. The Freshmen team finished sixth this year, but was lead by a break-through effort from Nick Hart. Nick covered the course in 18:46.
10/25/05	Ben Sitler: San Jose Mercury News Athlete of the Week! The San Jose Mercury News has named Senior Ben Sitler as this week’s Athlete of the Week. The Mercury writes:"Sitler remained unbeaten for the season with a time of 14 minutes, 42 seconds over a 3-mile course at the Mt. SAC Invitational in Walnut, good enough for first place in the Division I individual sweepstakes. After a 4:40 first mile, Sitler and four other runners separated themselves from the pack. Thirty meters up a series of steep switchbacks known as Reservoir Hill, he took the lead by himself and maintained a comfortable margin to the end. "He looked good the whole way," Coach Brian Curley said. "I think it was his best race ever." Sitler uses fast first-mile splits to put pressure on the rest of the field to keep pace. During the middle mile, he focuses on his rhythm, storing up energy for a final push. He decides when to make that push once he gets a feel for the race. "When he was younger, I’d have more input," Curley said. "But he doesn’t need me to give him that kind of advice anymore."
10/22/05	Sitler Wins at Mt. Sac – 14:42. 4^th Fastest of the Day Ben Sitler ran in the Division 1 and 2 Individual Sweepstakes race at the Mt. San Antonio Invitational in Walnut this weekend against some of the best runners in the West. Ben not only won the race, he improved his best on the course by 25 seconds to 14:42 and finished the day with the fourth fastest time of any high school athlete (there were close to 16,000 runners at the meet). He was also the fastest CCS runner at the meet by over 1 minute.
10/20/05	Sitler Wins – Varsity Takes Second at WCAL II Senior Ben Sitler continued his winning ways by setting a New Course Record at the Shoreline Amphitheatre Park Course last Wednesday with a time of 15:26 on the 3.0 mile course. Although he was joined by an outstanding effort from Eric Johnson in sixth place (16:16), the team finished second to St. Ignatius. This sets up another nail biter for the third year in a row for the WCAL Championships on November 2 at Crystal Springs. The Kevins (Rouse and Murphy) finished 3-4 in the Junior Varsity race with times of 17:18 and 17:25. The team finished fourth. The Freshmen team was lead by a fine race from Daniel Peterson who ran the 3.0-mile course in 18:32, followed closely by Nick Hart in 18:50. The team finished fourth in their division. The Sophomore team was lead by Dan Curley (19:15), Bach Nguyen (19:18) and Will Connor (19:24) to a sixth place finish.
10/11/05	Sitler Runs 14:53.2 at Crystal – 45^th Best All-Time. Despite only 10 minutes of warm-up time, Senior Ben Sitler ran a very fine time of 14:53 on the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course this past weekend. The time ranks as the forty-fifth best race on the all-time Crystal Springs list and the fastest runner at Crystal since 1998. Individually Be is the thirty-second fastest runner on the course, the fastest WCAL runner ever on the course, and the first Lancer ever under 15:00. While several of the Varsity runners had the day off, the team of Ben, Eric Johnson, Alex Blease, Mike Calcagno, Kevin Murphy and Kevin Rouse still managed a second place finish good team time of 81:36 well ahead of the CCS At-Large time of 86:46. The Sophomore Boys finished third (just behind Serra and 1 point in front of Bellarmine. Phillip Pompei lead the group with a time of 16:24 – good enough to move onto the SFHS All-Time Crystal Springs List for Sophomores. The Freshmen finished fifth and the JV Boys team was incomplete.
10/06/05	Varsity Boys Win First of Three WCAL Meets In a race reminiscence of last year’s ferocious competition within the WCAL, the St. Francis Varsity Boys vary narrowly beat SI 48 to 48, with the tie breaker the sixth man for the Lancers. Bellarmine was a close third with 52 points. The team was once again lead by Ben Sitler’s first-place finish in 16:06 for the 3.1-mile course. He was followed by Sam Pompei (9), Phil Pomepi (10), Kyle Stewart (11), Mike Calcagno (17) and Alex Blease (23) providing the tie-breaker. The JV and Freshmen Boys teams both finished fourth, and the severely depleted Sophomore Boys finished eighth. The second WCAL meet is in two weeks at Shoreline in Mt. View. St. Francis is hosting that meet.
10/03/05	Theme of the Day: Run Together The Varsity team, running without Ben Sitler and Phil Pompei but with the return of Eric Johnson, captured first place at the Artichoke Invitational at Half Moon Bay High School on Saturday. The team of Sam Pompei (12:26), Eric Johnson (12:32), Kyle Stewart (12:33), Alex Blease (12:33), Mike Calcago (12:51) and Kevin Murphy (12:52) finished an impressive 9-10-11-12-20-21 to take the title. The Sophomore boys also practiced some nice group running with a 25-27-29 finish from Tim Gates (13:38), Jeff Lorenz (13:39) and Matt Ong (13:40). Wil Conner and Dan Curley rounded out the squad that finished sixth overall. The Junior Varsity team finished fourth lead by Kevin Rouse’s fourth place finish in 13:25. He was followed by Matt Delsman (14:08), Kevin Zhao (14:23), Bryon Mathias-Fuqua (14:23) and Justin Dancer (15:21). The Freshmen boys were lead by Jamie Eldredge (21 in 14:31) and Daniel Peterson (22 in 14:32). Joe Madigan, Sam Levy and Cody Stahl rounded out the top 5.
09/24/05	Varsity Boys Second at Stanford. Sitler Fastest of the Day! The Varsity Boys team, despite the loss of Sam Pompei, finished second to Corona Del Mar at the Stanford Invitational. The team was once again lead by Senior Ben Sitler’s outstanding performance of first place in 15:27 for the 5K course. His nearest competitor was 33 seconds behind in his race. His time was also the third fastest by an American on the day at Stanford (AJ Acosta ran 15:13 and Diego Mercado ran 15:19). The team was composed of Ben, Philip Pompei (30 in 17:04), Alex Blease (33 in 17:06), Mike Calcagno (39 in 17:17) and Kyle Stewart (43 in 17:18). Kevin Murphy was our sixth man with a fine 49 place in 17:31 time. That’s a spread of only 27 seconds between second and sixth – without Sam! Amazing.
09/24/05	Freshmen Win, Sophomores Third, Junior Varsity Sixth The Freshmen, Sophomores and Junior Varsity teams competed at the Westmoor Ram Invitational on Saturday. The Freshmen Boys picked up their first win of the season. Jamie Eldrege lead the charge (7 in 15:24) followed by Daniel Petersen (10 in 15:56), Joey Madigan (14 in 16:13), Sam Levy (17 in 16:26) and Cody Stahl (22 in 16:36). The Sophomore Boys ran a very fine race with all top 5 finishers for the Lancers in the top 28 and receiving medals. In a very fine field they finished third. The team was once again lead by Matt Ong (7 in 14:30) and followed closely by Jeff Lorenz (9 in 14:41), Tim Gates (11 in 14:44), Daniel Curley (27 in 15:32) and Will Conner (28 15:32). The Junior Varity team was lead by Kevin Rouse’s (2 in 14:10) superb run. Bryon Mathias-Fuqua (15 in 14:41) and Matt Delsman (17 in 14:44) also finished in the top 17 and picked up some nice hardware. Complete results will be posted when available from the meet director.
09/23/05	ESPN2 Movie – Roger Bannister and the 4:00 Mile On Thursday, October 6 at 7:00pm ESPN2 will be airing a movie they made about Dr. Roger Bannister’s attempt – and success – at becoming the first human being to run the mile under four minutes. His accomplishment is still considered one of the greatest single successes in sports history. Watch it and tape it.
09/17/05	Ben Sets Meet Record at De La Salle. Team Finishes Fourth. At the 3.0-Mile De La Salle Invitational Meet today in Concord Senior Ben Sitler set a new Course Record with a time of 15:02 (5:00 per mile pace) to beat the second place finisher by 29 seconds. The team of Ben, Senior Sam Pompei (18 in 16:26), Sophomore Phillip Pompei (26 in 16:43), Junior Alex Blease (31 in 16:51) and Junior Kevin Murphy (47 in 17:01) finished fourth overall in the field of 31 teams and 223 runners. The depleted Junior Varsity team was lead to a fifth place finish with the help of a fine race by Junior Kevin Rouse.who covered the 2.0-Mile course in 11:40 for sixth place overall. The Frosh / Soph team was lead by Sophomore Matt Ong who covered the 2.0-Mile course in 11:58. The team finished in eleventh place overall.
09/11/05	Gunn Alumni Meet The boys ran at the Gunn Alumni meet yesterday. While this is an unofficial, pre-season meet, the Lancers ran very well despite missing both Ben Sitler and Eric Johnson. Pictures and Results are available below.
09/07/05	More People Think St. Francis Boys the Team to Beat… The latest San Jose Mercury News Cross Country Ranking puts St. Francis (D3) as the number one pick in the section, followed closely by Willow Glen (D3), SI (D3) and Serra (D1). Looks like D3 is the place to be this year!
09/02/05	St. Francis Boys XC the Team to Beat… According to a recent survey on DyeStatCal.com, the Lancer Boys XC team is a major player in the D III sweepstakes this year. "St. Francis has dropped in here enrollment-wise, with Division II individual titlest, Ben Sitler (15:35 in the Toro Div II title race and state’s #1 listed Div III runner off a 9:10.47c 3200 in the spring) leading Sam Pompei and a good group that returns. Willow Glen (8th state 2004) can run step for step with St F as a team, with St. Ignatius (7TH State 2004 capable of winning it all." Click here for the complete Boys Cross Country CCS preview.
08/29/05	Ben Sitler Ranked #1 in DteStatCal.com’s Preseason DIII Senior Ben Sitler is currently the number one runner to watch in DyeStat’s preseason poll of Division 3 runners. Two Willow Glen runners are also listed (junior Mohammed Abdalla [4:25] and sophomore Marcos Corona [[4:19]). For the DIII list, click here. For the complete D1 through D5 list, click here.
08/09/05	Mandatory Parent Meeting: Tuesday, September 13 All Boy’s Cross Country athletes and parents need to attend this brief (1 hour) meeting on Tuesday, September 13 from 7:00 to 8:00pm in the Malcolm Center at St. Francis.
08/01/05	Practice begins… With only 1 week to go until practice starts, we hope you have all been running this summer. The Varsity, JV and Sophomores start August 8 at 6:00pm at Rancho. The Freshmen signup on Orientation Day (August 17) and start the first day of school (August 18). The JV and Sophomore boys will begin the season with a nice run up Wills. Some may say "That’s it? That’s all?" while others may profess "You’re joking!…" Which group will you be in?
06/13/05	Lancers Return to D III… This upcoming cross country season St. Francis will be returning to Division 3. Also in D III from the WCAL is Riordan and St. Ignatius. Our old friends North Monterey County remain in Division II.

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Results
Date	Opponent	Results	Pictures
09/08/05 09/17/05 09/24/05 09/24/05 10/01/05 10/05/05 10/08/05 10/19/05 10/22/05 11/02/05 11/12/05 11/26/05 12/03/05 12/10/05	Gunn Meet –Directions De la Salle Invitational – Directions Westmoor Ram Invitational – Directions Stanford Invitational (Varsity only) Artichoke Invitational - Directions WCAL Meet I (Golden Gate Park) Serra / Crystal Springs Invitational WCAL Meet II (Shoreline) – Course Info Mt. Sac Invitational WCAL Meet III (Crystal Springs) CCS Championships (Varsity only) CIF Championships (Varsity only) Footlocker Western Regionals (Non-school) Footlocker National Championships (Ben)	Results Results Results D3 Results All Results Results Results Results Results – Ben, CCS Results Results Results (D3) Results Results	Pictures Pictures Pictures Pictures Pictures Pictures Pictures Pictures Pictures Pictures - MG Pictures - MG Pictures Pictures Pictures

Weight Room Schedule – Nov. 7 through Dec. 16
Boys and Girls	2:10/2:30 for 40 minutes

Interesting Links
DyeStatCal Lynbrook High Schhool Cross Country West Catholic Athletic League (WCAL) Central Coast Section (CCS) California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) XC National Collegiate Athletic Association Crystal Springs Cross Country Course What Makes Us Human? Running… Metric-to-English Distance Conversion 1, 2 Metric-to-English Weight Conversion Course Time Conversions	State-wide Schedules and Race Results Race results and links to everything League Information Section Information State Cross Country Information College Bound High School Athlete Recruiting Rules, etc. Crystal Springs XC Course Information and Rules Mercury News Article on Evolution and Running Convert Meters to Yards, etc. Convert Kilograms to Pounds, etc. Convert Crystal to Toro, etc.

History and Statistics
SFHS All-Time Crystal Springs List SFHS All-Time Woodard Park List SFHS All-Time Toro Park List CCS Boys Cross Country Champions XC Dietary Recommendations	Prior Weeks "Quote of the Week"

Contact Information
Head Coach Freshman Coach Soph / JV Coach Athletic Director Principal	Brian Curley Mike Saso Steve Fuller Mike Pilawski Patricia Tennant	School Home School School Home Mobile School Fax School	(650) 968-1213 x625 (408) 378-3118 (650) 968-1213 x455 (650) 968-1213 x455 (831) 426-0886 (831) 566-6489 (650) 968-1213 x455 (650) 968-0856 (650) 968-1213 x410

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about this page, please contact Steve Fuller at one of the numbers or Email addresses above.