This cross country postseason, Carondelet High School's Nicole Hood wasn't just her team's front-runner -- she was the front-runner for the entire East Bay.

Hood, a sophomore, had the East Bay's fastest times at both the North Coast Section championships and the California Interscholastic Federation state championships. She won the NCS Division II girls title with a time of 17 minutes, 8 seconds, an NCS Division II girls championship record for the 3-mile Hayward High School course.

She then had the fastest East Bay time at the CIF state championships, finishing fourth in the Division II race, running 17:52 at the 3.1 mile Woodward Park course in Fresno. She also claimed her second straight Bay Valley Athletic League championship meet title.

For her accomplishments this season, Hood has been named the Times' Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year.

"I thought it went really well. I was really proud of my season," said Hood, who was also named Times Runner of the Year last season. "I was running more miles (than last year) in the summer and in the season as well. I think that was what helped me the most."

Two early-season invitationals showed Hood's potential. At the Nike Pre-National/Jim Danner Invitational in Portland on Sept. 29, Hood was impressive with a strong second-half surge to win in 17:56 and lead her squad to the team title. Carondelet also was first as a team in the Clovis Invitational sweepstakes race on Oct. 6. Hood was third individually


behind Mission College Prep-San Luis Obispo's Jordan Hasay, who later in the season finished third in the Foot Locker national finals, and Claire Collison of Crescenta Valley-La Crescenta, who later in the season finished second in the CIF Division I state championship race.

"At Portland, she was able to outkick (Bellarmine Prep-Washington's Nicole Cochran) at the end, and when she ran Clovis she ran really smart. She didn't get sucked in with Jordan," Carondelet coach Mary Ann Grubb said. "I thought Nicole had a great season. She really came along in terms of developing race plans and following (them).

Grubb points to a race even earlier than those two invitationals as one that really springboarded Hood to a successful season -- the De La Salle/Carondelet Nike Invitational on Sept. 15. "We had a race plan of going out at six-flat, and she did that and got progressively faster each mile," said Grubb of the 3-mile race that Hood easily won by 23 seconds in 17:53.

She also won the large school division race of the Ed Sias Invitational on Sept. 8 -- the first of many outstanding performances in an outstanding season.

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