2008 National JO XC Championships Update

The Pacific Association has 80+ youth track clubs in the Association and on Saturday, December 13, 2008, at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Virginia, the club Palo Alto Lightning had one of two Pacific Association first place winners:  Julia Bounds. The top 25 finishers in each age group were awarded medals and "All American" honors during the closing ceremonies.
 
The cross country National Junior Olympics featured the top 20 finishers from each of the 15 regions across the country..."the best of the best." In Julia's age group there were 220 other athletes competing in the
cold conditions.  Julia trained and conditioned hard and finished her season as a great Champion – "undefeated."  Good Job!
 
The club had seven athletes who qualified for the National cross country Junior Olympics:

 

·       Claudia Denoue (Palo Alto) Bantam

·       Dennis Mandutzo (Palo Alto) Bantam

·       Ben Zaeske (Los Altos) Bantam

·       Kent Slaney (Palo Alto) Bantam

·       Julia Bounds (Redwood City) Bantam

·       Romain Hardy (Palo Alto) Midget

·       Dariya Smith (Mt.View/Los Altos) Midget

All athletes competed in 3k races and were quite competitive.

With track & field starting in February, we expect this to be a very exciting season. Thank you to all of our parents and Coach Michael for your support, patience and confidence.  Congratulations to all.

 

Coach Willie Young

Palo Alto Lightning