Recent Results from PMS Cross Country Team

From a Piedmont Middle School Boosters press release:

On Sept. 27, 2012, the PMS cross country team hosted its annual meet for the East Bay League schools at Temescal Regional Park in North Oakland. Over 350 runners from 15 different schools participated in the meet. It was a picture perfect day, not too warm and nicely chilly in the shade.

Piedmont Middle School is still at the leading edge of technology, being the only school in the league using chip timing to record race results. This technology makes use of small plastic "chips" or bands worn on the runner shoe laces and as they cross the finish line their time place is automatically recorded. This means results are available virtually instantaneously with no manual entry required. 

Four different races were held during the meet, starting with the 6th grade Girls race. Erin Hong did PMS super proud finishing first with a time of 7:43.5, a full 12 seconds faster than the 2nd place runner. Josephine Gross Whittaker and Naomi Hollinger also finished amazingly with respective times of 8:05.6 and 8:05.8.

The next race was the 6th grade boys. Piedmont had 5 boys finish in the top 12 of this race! They were led by Lorand Cheng in a time of 7:25.6 for a 5th place finish.  Henry Cooper, Dylan Thayer, Sam Von Herrmann, and Mitch Curtis rounded out the rest of the top 12 finishers, all coming in faster than 7:47. 

The 3rd race of the day was the 7 & 8th grade girls. Leading much of the race, coming in 2nd place and setting a new PMS 8th grade girl’s course record in 7:34.7 was Skyler Liu. The two other top 12 finishers from PMS were Leah Kochendoerfer in 8th place and Minnie Cooper in 11th place.

The 7 & 8th grade boys race was the largest group, having 132 participants. Blake Gruendl was the top PMS finisher in this race, coming in 8th place with a time of 6:50.5. He also set a new school course record for 8th grade boys and broke the old record by almost 20 seconds.  Daniel Jones and Nick Loduca were among the top 20 finishers with times under 7:08. 

Congrats to all who gave it their all and raced. Much thanks to all the volunteers who helped the race go smoothly.For more information about the team and to review complete results and pictures, go the the team website at: www.pmscc.com

PMS Cross Country Meet, Sept. 24, at Golden Gate Fields Racetrack 

 On Sept. 24, 2012 the Piedmont Middle School cross country team participated in the annual Golden Gate Fields (GGF) meet in Berkeley. About 400 students from 13 different schools participated in this annual East Bay League meet which was hosted by Albany Middle School.

It was a beautiful if breezy day at Golden Gate. The infield was an ideal location to have the first meet for the 6th graders and many of the upper grade participants. The race route is flat and grassy the whole way round, meandering between ponds with fountains.

Four different races were held during the meet, starting with the 6th grade boys race. PMS placed 3 boys in the top 10 finishers of this race. Henry Cooper placed 6th, Dylan Thayer placed 9th, and Mitchell Curtis placed 10th. 

Next went the 6th grade girls. Our PMS girls are the defending League champions–wooo hoot! Erin Hong represented the new girls accordingly, placing 3rd among the 6th grade girls, and Zoe Rickard placed very well at 12th. 

Next was the 7th and 8th grade boys race, where Kyler Mortimer led the 17 PMS runners in this race, finishing 21st. Ellie Coleman and Ava Podell, represented 7th and 8th grade girls superbly in the last race, finishing 5th and 11th respectively.

The trooper of the day was Mini Cooper, who, despite a bit of spill, dusted herself off and finished well. Kudos, Mini!

For more information about the team and to review complete results and pictures, go to the team website at: www.pmscc.com

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