SHP looking to make run at state XC meet

Terry Bernal, San Mateo Daily Journal Staff
Six Gators finished in the top 20 in the boys’ varsity race last Friday at Crystal Springs, with senior Max Cluss paving the way to earn SHP the boys’ team championship. The next test for the Gators’ depth comes Saturday at the Central Coast Section cross-country championships at Crystal Springs.


Sacred Heart Prep just missed the cut to advance to the state cross-country boys’ meet last season. This year, the Gators have a different outcome in mind.

“That’s been our motivator all year because that left a bad taste in our mouth,” SHP head coach Ken Wilner said.

The West Bay Athletic League finals offered a promising sign. Six Gators finished in the top 20 in the boys’ varsity race last Friday at Crystal Springs, with senior Max Cluss paving the way to earn SHP the boys’ team championship.

Cluss won the WBAL individual title with a time of 16 minutes, 6 seconds, finishing 11 seconds better than the second-place finisher, Menlo sophomore Kamran Murray. Sophomores Calvin Katz (16:44.1) and Axel de Vernou (16:47.3) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, junior Matthew Chun (17:33.2) was 11th, senior Jake Wheeler (17:51) was 15th and sophomore Austin Jamias (18:22.3) was 19th in the field of 53 runners.

The next test for the Gators’ depth comes Saturday at the Central Coast Section cross-country championships at Crystal Springs.

SHP will be contending in the Division IV race, scheduled for a 12:20 p.m. start. The top three placers gain thoroughfare to the state meet, with San Lorenzo Valley (second place in the Santa Clara County Athletic League meet) and King City (champions of the Pacific Coast Athletic League) being the other two top contenders, Wilner said.

“Our goal is to qualify for the state meet as the team, all seven of us,” Wilner said. “And that’s going to take all seven of our runners bringing it.”
With every place on the individual standings board critical to SHP’s goal, the matchup between Cluss and Murray may loom large. While Cluss topped his Menlo rival in the WBAL meet, the sophomore Murray has traditionally fared better head-to-head with the senior.

“Kamran is a fabulous competitor … he beat him in the first league race, but in that one … Max’s focus in that first race was to beat [second-place Crystal Springs Uplands’] top runner, and that’s exactly what he did,” Wilner said. “Not to take anything away from Kamran, but that’s what he set out to do.”

Murray was running at a disadvantage in the WBAL championship meet, having not competed due to a knee injury since WBAL Meet No. 1. Murray won that Oct. 4 race, topping Cluss by over seven seconds.

“Max won league and, I’m not going to take anything any from him, Max had an amazing race and I expect him to have an amazing race in CCS,” Menlo head coach Jorge Chen said. “He and Kamran will be battling out for spots in the state.”

Their one-two finish at the WBAL championships turned in to a duel over the last 800 meters. Murray paced the field for a majority of the race, with the taller Cluss drafting behind him.

“We just told him when he’s going to make a move, make it decisively,” Wilner said. “And his fitness is really good.”

Cluss refined his fitness in the spring, closing out his junior year by joining the track team for the first time ever. Through his two underclassman years, he played tennis as his spring sport. Then in 2017, he not only augmented his cross-country career by joining the track team, he bucked convention by competing not as a pure distance runner, but by specializing in the 200 and 800 meters distances.

So it was fitting Cluss’ WBAL championship run came down the final 800 meters.

“Once I saw him make that move, I knew he was going to win the race,” Wilner said.

Gabriel Mellows (19:51.1) was SHP’s final placer in 42nd. The senior will not be participating in the CCS meet, with Ben Makarechian taking his place in the lineup.

Tactically, the WBAL meet saw the Gators work in tiers, with Cluss topping Murray and third-place finisher Jake Symonds of Crystal Springs; Katz and de Vernou ahead of Crystal’s Aiden Duncanson and Wilser Vasquez, sixth and seventh; Chun ahead of Crystal senior Alec Iannuccilli, 13th; Wheller ahead of Crystal senior Luke Shannon, 17th; and Jamias ahead of Crystal sophomore Niles Tilenius, 20th.

“That’s exactly how you win a cross-country race, by beating the other team’s respective runners … and that’s what they were supposed to do top to bottom,” Wilner said.

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Sacred Heart Schools Atherton

Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton

150 Valparaiso Ave
Atherton, CA 94027
650 322 1866
Founded by the Society of the Sacred Heart, SHS is a Catholic, independent, co-ed day school for students in preschool through grade 12