Tracy Press

West High senior Sarah Rico will continue running at Cal.

Cross country runner Sarah Rico, shown stretching before a run in the fall, has committed to attend University of California, Berkeley, on a partial scholarship. Press file photo

Rico recently confirmed that she would take a partial scholarship to join the cross country team at University of California, Berkeley. The three-time league champion was on the recruiting lists for colleges like University of California, Davis, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, University of San Francisco and San Francisco State.

Rico said the colleges started to contact her during the 2006-07 track season, when she was a junior. By then, she had won her second Tri-City Athletic League championship in cross country and had finished eighth in the Sac-Joaquin Section finals and 121st in the California Interscholastic Federation finals.

Rico said the recruiters from Berkeley sent her a letter during the fall to see if she was interested in running for Cal. Rico said that’s when she found the opportunity she’d wanted all along.

“I loved the team, so it wasn’t a hard choice,” she said.

Now, she’s looking forward to competition in the competitive Pac-10 Conference.

“I’m just trying to work hard so I can have a pretty good standing when I get there next year,” she said.

While she kept up the college correspondence, she also won the 2007 TCAL league meet for her third league championship, took seventh place in the Sac-Joaquin Section finals and finished in 66th place in the CIF championships Nov. 24.

Rico has been running at West since her family moved to Mountain House from San Jose. She has also run track in the 800-meter and 1,600-meter races.

This spring, though, she is instead competing with the Pacific United runner’s club, which sent her to the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics in Lawrence, Kan., in December. There, she took 20th place in the young women’s 5K race.

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written by Wondering WHY??? , April 24, 2008

What is the TRUE reason Sara is NOT running track this year for West High????? I herd she got kicked off the team by the Coach. Any TRUTH to this??? Inquiring minds wanna know!!!!

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written by XOXOXO , April 24, 2008

Rumor has it that she was kicked off the team due to the coach being mad that she did not mention him during the signing ofher LOI to Cal.