March 29, 2007, 12:45AM

TRACK AND FIELD NOTEBOOK
Seven Lakes enjoys recent attention
Spartans expect continued success from young squad

By SAM KHAN JR.
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Seven Lakes made its imprint on the cross country scene in the fall, and now the Spartans are making noise on the track as well.

Seven Lakes' boys distance runners made big splashes at the TSU Relays on Saturday as the Spartans claimed the 1,600- and 3,200-meter titles and placed three runners in the top 10 of each.

Sophomore Chase Rathke won the 1,600 with a time of 4:26.61, fourth-best in the area, and fellow sophomore C.J. Jessett won the 3,200 with a time of 9:40.5, also No. 4 in the area. Jessett also finished fourth in the 1,600, and sophomore Jimmy Welin joined them in the top 10, placing eighth. Rathke finished second in the 3,200, while Welin finished fourth.

Together, the trio looks formidable enough to go toe-to-toe with area distance powers Kingwood and The Woodlands.

Rathke certainly opened some eyes by defeating Cypress Falls' Blake Shaw, one of the top middle-distance runners in the area. Shaw led heading into the third lap, but Rathke finished strong. It was a thrill for the sophomore, who was running in his first big meet.

"I always like to finish strong the last two laps," Rathke said. "(The energy) just comes to me, and I just go."

The Seven Lakes runners said some in the area are beginning to take notice of their success in the long distances.

"It's great," Jessett said. "A lot of people ask us where we're from, and they're always amazed how good we are considering how young we are. We feel like a bunch of rookies coming in that have to prove ourselves."

The Spartans aren't well-known to everyone because they haven't been around long — the school opened in 2005. The girls had immediate success by qualifying for the Class 4A state cross country meet in their first year of competition, and the boys joined the girls at state this fall, where both placed in the top 10. Still, not everyone has taken notice, according to Jessett.

"It's hard to get respect," he said. "You always hear more about the big schools and the powerhouses."

With a team constructed of mostly underclassmen (there are no seniors and just five juniors on Seven Lakes' 14-man roster), the Spartans expect to have success for a long time.

"Our team has really worked hard," Rathke said. "Most of us are sophomores, and when we're seniors, we'll be pretty good."

2006 CCCAT ALL-REGION TEAM - 4A BOYS ALL-REGION - Region III

Drew Bean - Little Cypress

Luis Pena - Elgin

Philip Rogers - Nederland

James Welin - Seven Lakes

Gabe Cuadra - Friendswood

Matt Ellis - Friendswood

Brandon Swindler - Friendswood

Chase Rathke - Seven Lakes

Christopher Jessett - Seven Lakes

Josh Dubose - Friendswood

Joshua Saizan - Caney Creek

Clint Pollock - Rich. Foster

Barak Mossbarger - Brenham

Brandon Kotzur - Rich. Foster

Oscar Briones - Angleton

November 8, 2006

Cross country: Katy area sends big crew to state

The Houston Chronicle, By L. SCOTT HAINLINE, Chronicle Correspondent

Katy ISD will have a large contingent at the state cross country championship meets Saturday in Round Rock.

With the Cinco Ranch boys and girls teams in the 5A division and the Seven Lakes boys and girls in 4A competition, the city will have a representative in each of the big-school races.

"The district did pretty well," said Cinco Ranch boys head coach Gary Derks. "To have a boys and a girls team in each of the classifications, that's pretty good for one district. I'm hoping we all do pretty well this weekend."

All were second last Saturday at their respective Region III meets except the Cougar boys, who after being upset by Mayde Creek at the District 18-5A meet came back to pass the Rams for the third and final team spot Saturday on the North Harris College course.

The Coogs were sparked by outstanding performances from junior Zac Flowers, who won the meet with a time of 15 minutes, 21.7 seconds, and senior Kyle Goldsmith, who was second in 15:28.76.

"Those guys ran the best they have ran all year," said Derks. "We knew they had it in them. It was just a matter of bringing it out of them and we were really glad to see them do that at the regional meet. But that's the way we train. We try to really set everything up so we have our best times at the last two meets, which are regionals and state. But those guys did a great job."

Those top two places added up to just three points and they finished with 105 points to place third behind Strake Jesuit, which won with 49 points, and Kingwood, which took second with 62.

The Coogs also got a big boost by having their other three runners place 38th, 39th, and 40th, respectively, sliding them past Mayde Creek, which was fourth with 122 points.

Cougar runners George Stredney (16:50.29), Justin Dermit (16:50.62) and Scott Wilkinson (16:51.06) were all together when they crossed the finish line.

"Those guys ran well, but we think they can run faster and we're looking for faster times this week," said Derks. "One of those guys was probably in the top 15 for a while, but then he faded a little bit and that's something that we're going to try and make sure doesn't happen at state. But I was pleased with the way they ran."

Besides Cinco Ranch, Mayde Creek and Morton Ranch were the other 18-5A teams in the boys division. Junior Eric Doll had the Rams' highest finish, placing 20th overall with a 16:25.45. Tyler Johnson had the Mavericks' highest individual finish, placing 21st overall with a 16:26.62 time,

On the girls side, Cinco Ranch took second place behind Kingwood, which won with 50 points. The Cougars finished with 68 points. Clear Lake was a distant third with 114 points.

"It was between us and them and we're getting closer to them," said Cinco Ranch girls head coach Kristi Lancaster of the Mustangs. "Kingwood is ranked No. 1 in the nation and right now they're No. 1 in the state, in terms of the times they have ran, but I thought we ran a pretty good race. We had a bad start. We got boxed in and just didn't get out, which I thought hurt us a little bit in the end, but I thought other than that, we ran a good race. We had five girls run under 12 minutes, so that's not too bad."

Cinco had five girls in the top 28 places in a field of 179 runners.

Sophomore Itzel Cetina was first for her team and 12th overall with an 11:37.82 time, while junior teammate Alex Bullard was one spot behind in 11:38.86, while sophomore Alyse Goldsmith was in back of both of them, placing 14th with an 11:39.35 time. Junior Grace Howard wasn't far behind those three, taking 18th place in 11:44.41. Senior Caitlin Masse rounded out the scoring, coming in 28th with an 11:57.59 time.

"Those are good times, but I think we need to run even better times this week," said Lancaster of the state meet. "Our goal (at state) was to finish in the top three, but I think if we can run the best race possible, then who knows where we'll finish? All the best teams, except for Southlake Carroll, are in our region, so we know what we have to do and hopefully, we can go out and run a good race on Saturday."

This is the girls' third straight trip to the state meet. Two years ago they were seventh and last year they were fifth, so continuing that steady climb should put them in contention among the leaders.

Katy and Morton Ranch were the other girls teams from the district to run at the regional meet, although the teams won't be sending anyone to the state meet.

Katy freshman Christine Hanson had the Tigers' best finish, placing 46th in the field with a 12:18.49 time.

Senior Alora Howard had the Lady Mavericks' best showing, placing 52nd overall with a 12:28.90.

Mayde Creek did not have enough girls to figure in the team scoring, but freshman Isabel Balbontin ran a strong race for the Lady Rams, placing 39th with a decent 12:04.68.

In Class 4A action, in just their second year of competition the Spartans have made a splash in the Region III-4A waters with both their boys and girls teams finishing as the runners-up last Saturday at the regional meet.

The boys were topped by Friendswood, which had five runners among the first 11 and tallied 41 points. The Spartans had 87 points.

The girls, who competed at state last year, lost out to Montgomery by just four points 54-58. They had five of the first 21 runners to cross the finish line.

One year after surprising everyone with a trip to the state in their first year of existence, the girls surprised no one this year.

Junior Blair McCormack paced her team, coming in sixth overall with an 11:52.96. Junior Katelyn Colwell was 11th and the last Lady Spartan to crack the 12-minute mark, running an 11:58.05. However, she had two teammates on her heels as sophomore Jackie Alnes was 12th with a 12:03.58 and freshman Andrea Rauta came in 15th with a 12:24.41. Junior Marissa Anselmo rounded out the scoring with a 21st-place finish in 12:28.27.

While the boys success has not come quite as quickly as that of their female colleagues, they have also been bolstered by a lot of strong showings against older, accomplished teams.

The Spartans had three sophomore runners among the top nine finishers to highlight their performance, but had a dropoff after that with their fourth runner in 23rd place and the last one to count coming in 43rd.

Sophomore James Welin was first for his team and fourth overall among the 4A field of 171 runners, covering the course in a 16:12.40 time. Classmate Chase Rathke was eighth overall, running a 16:30.40, while fellow classmate Christopher Jessett was close behind, placing ninth with a 16:30.89. After that, sophomore Andrew Merrick was 23rd with a 17:25.44 and junior Karthik Rajendron was 43rd with a 17:50.89 time.

October 18, 2006

Rams, Spartans take honors

Mayde Creek and Seven Lakes took the top two team trophies at the Sam Houston High School Invitational last Saturday at T.C. Jester Park.

The Katy Sun ©Houston Community Newspapers Online 2006