Photo Courtesy Doug Speck Caltrack.com

Yong-Sung Leal won the CIF State Boy's Division II cross country championship, but no one is rolling out the red carpet.

Leal captured the first state title in Arroyo High School's history, but since when is that a big deal anyway? 

Did any one actually expect marching bands parading down Hesperian Boulevard? Come on, this cross country we're talking about.

Students recently polled at the end of their school day said the school is not really big on sports, besides, cross country is not even a sport. 

Sorry kid, people just don't understand how big a feat it is to win the state title as a sophomore. But that matters very little to this shy and extremely competitive 15-year-old. So he quietly and methodically pursues the goals he sets for himself, while remaining true to his religious convictions and making friends along the way. 

Yong-Sung's father, Bento, said his son sometimes prays before setting out to push his body to the brink of collapse and leaving the competition in the dust. 

"I grew up in a very religious environment,'' said Yong-Sung. "What happen to me was so smooth. This man, Mike Exton, just happened to be the cross country coach at Lorenzo Manner that year. He just happened to notice me. This was too perfect to be a coincidence or accident. I feel God had something to do with this and with so many great things that happen in my life. I feel that he's there (helping).''

Arroyo cross country coach Susan Guinee said that any one who wants to beat this running star has to have a higher threshold for pain than he does. That maybe the key as to why few runner ever beat him. Clearly that was the case at the state finals. 

Leal's time of 15 minutes, 22 seconds was just two seconds over his goal. He collapsed a few steps beyond the finish line after completing the 3.1-mile course at a pace of 4:57 per mile. 

The token was the first place plaque and the satisfaction of posting the second fastest time of the day out of a field of 839 boys competing in five divisions and beating Carl Dambkowski or Granada High School in Livermore.

Dambkowski beat Leal by 9 seconds in the North Coast Section Division II Championship meet the week before the state final. Leal said he had never raced Dambkowski and never thought of him as a challenger. At least not until the state meet, where Leal was prepared for Dambkowski's strong kick and went on to beat him by 6 seconds. 

But if anyone still has not realized how huge of an accomplishment this is, think of this way, his time is the sixth best of all time in this race. And it is the second fastest ever posted by a Hayward Area Athletic League runner in Division II. 
Matt Farley of Jesuit Carmichael High School holds the record of 15:06 since 1993 and Hayward High School alum Kevin Berkowitz owns the fifth best time overall and best HAAL time. Berkowitz blazed through the course in 15:19 in 1989--the third edition of the CIF State cross country championship that started in 1987.

Richard Lloyd, Arroyo principal, said there are plans to honor Leal at an upcoming San Lorenzo Unified School District Board meeting and students were making a banner to celebrate his title.

But Leal is not waiting around for any gala in his honor. He has his sights set on placing among the top eight spots in the Foot Locker West Regional Cross Country Championships to qualify for the National Finals. 

His plan was to win a trip to the National Finals Dec. 9 at Disney's Oak Trail Course@Shades of Green in Orlando, Fla. But despite being the top placer among the seeded sophomores, Leal will have to wait till next year to run in the National Finals. He placed 14th with a time of 15:58 in a very hilly course at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif., Dec. 2.

Since there is no race for him next week, Yong-Sung is taking a week off from practice. After that he will train for a week and take another break so he can take part in a Youth Workshop sponsored by the Unification Church in San Leandro.