Congratulations to Rohan Choudhury and Jenny Xu who were selected for the Mercury-News cross country honor teams…these are runners selected from all high school runners in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, plus schools in San Francisco that compete in the WCAL.
Rohan was selected for the first time; this is a tribute to a great season, which included a 6th place finish in CCS Division-1 finals. Rohan worked hard, and through hard work and sustained consistent effort, he improved every single season at Monta Vista. As an example, his times for DAL finals at Crystal Springs each year were:
- 2011: 17:36
- 2012: 16:52 (44 second improvement)
- 2013: 16:05 (47 second improvement)
- 2014: 15:34 (31 second improvement) (total 2:02 improvement over three years!)
All of us would be proud of career improvements like that! Wow, that is an impressive set of results, all coming from Rohan’s ability to keep working hard over a long period of time. Hard work pays off. This strength of character will pay off in any field, not only running.
Jenny Xu has been selected for the M-N team for the fourth straight year! Jenny has been at the middle of an incredibly successful period for Monta Vista distance runners, and she has worked hard to be successful though out the ups and downs that every competitive athlete will have. It’s a tribute to Jenny’s persistence is that every year she has been able to earn a spot among our region’s best runners.
We are all very proud of Rohan and Jenny’s accomplishments; and in a small way, they are our accomplishments too. Every time any one of us ran a mile with Rohan or Jenny, every time we yelled encouragement, we helped them along as well as helping ourselves. Every time we came out as a group and provided energy to the team during a rainy workout or a hot and dusty run in Fremont Older or a 7am run on Saturday at Rancho, we made it easier for everyone to improve and excel. We really are a group and a family and as we work to succeed ourselves, we help everyone around us, also.
And we did all improve! What you may not have realized–I just looked this up–is that as far as I can tell, 2014 was the first year that the Monta Vista boys and girls cross country teams were both in the final Mercury-News rankings; check this out…
Monta Vista Team Rankings
Mercury-News End of Year Rank
2004-2014
| Boys | Girls | |
| 2014 | 14th | 3rd |
| 2013 | – | 2nd |
| 2012 | – | 11th |
| 2011 | – | 14th |
| 2010 | – | – |
| 2009 | 11th | – |
| 2008 | – | – |
| 2007 | – | – |
| 2006 | – | 10th |
| 2005 | – | 7th |
| 2004 | – | 10th |
Congratulations to Rohan and Jenny–and congratulations, Monta Vista!
Monta Vista Selections to Mercury News Team since 2011
2014: Rohan Choudhury, Jenny Xu
2013: Kelly Bishop, Bridget Gottlieb (1st Team), Jenny Xu, Madeleine Yip
2012: Jenny Xu
2011: Kevin Bishop (1st team), Jenny Xu (2nd team)
