“Carpe Diem” is a Latin phrase, taken from an old, old book of Roman poetry…people argue about the accurate translation of “Carpe Diem”, whether the correct translation is something like ‘seize the day’ or a better translation is ‘pick’ or ‘pluck the day, as it is ripe’–kind of an ancient YOLO. My favorite use of this phrase, and maybe when I learned of carpe diem, was in the movie Dead Poets’ Society, when Robin Williams encourages his students to carpe diem–seize the day–to make your lives extraordinary.
On Thursday, March 12, Mountain View was scheduled to come and compete in a dual meet against Monta Vista. At about 1:20pm, the decision was made to cancel track and swimming inter school competitions. No one knew what the future would bring but we all guessed that more bad news might follow. At that point, the track was all prepared for a dual meet, every athlete had brought uniforms, and we had planned to time the event. We were told that a Monta Vista only practice was allowed. So…carpe diem. Let’s have a track meet, just for us, while we can!
And with one hour to plan, the Carpe Diem Games was created.
First up was the 100m, and the start was pretty rocky. Your amateur starter (that’s me) had a major fail for the first two heats of the girls’ 100m, and our times were not recorded. After a pause to get the FAT (fully automatic timing) system adjusted, we resumed…and we were rewarded to see senior Pranav Pata and freshman Jonathan (AKA Morris’ little brother) Chiang run times that put them in the top-10 marks so far this year in the El Camino Athletic League (ECAL). This was the start of a strong, strong day for Monta Vista athletes!
In the 1600m, Jannah Sheriff lead the girls around with a 5:36.95 mark. Freshmen Sydney Stevens (5:38.10) and Avani Kalari (5:42.76) chased Jannah home; both freshmen set personal records in their first high school 1600s, with times that were also in the ECAL top-10 for 2020. Rohun Agrawal backed up his stunning season opening 3200m last Saturday in the RustBuster with a solid 4:37, helping take sophomore Justin Yu to a four second personal record of 4:48.60. Sahil Goel and Kyle Tsujimoto also recorded sub-five minute times, upperclassmen Jason Yip and Conner Hsu both had PRs, and sprinter Vishal Koppuru, apparently thinking that he heard Coach John ask him to run four ‘big laps’, had a solid 5:24 mark! (Well done, Vishal! See you for MVXC, OK?)
Remember those two heats of the girls 100m that opened the Carpe Diem Games, with failed timing? Well, after giving the girls time to recover, we reset and tried those heats again. It would have been easy to be frustrated at having to re-run a race again, but the girls’ set up their blocks with their game faces on! Bianca Young blazed to a 12.45 PR, with twin Brooke right behind with a 12.56. If the twins had put up these times at CCS finals last year, that would have placed them 2 and 5! For 2020, the twins have the 2nd and 4th marks in CCS –and the two quickest FAT marks!–in this young season. Sammi Dunn and Jackie Chang also were under 14 seconds, and junior Andie Liu put up a PR. Freshman Justine Garcia also knocked almost a quarter second off of her middle school PR!
The high hurdles featured PRs for both Sotirios Kougiouris and Claire Yang, with newcomer Jennifer Zhao leading the women’s heat. Freshman Agnes Wang had a nice 2:38 in her first 800m race, with Jannah, Vibha Iyengar, Vivian Lau, Vivian Cheng and Nerea Northrop all in a tight 10 second pack behind the leader. Vibha–also a sprinter and a throw captain–showed a lot of grit while setting the pace at the start and leading the pack to some solid marks! Andrew Richardson broke the boys’ 800m heat open early, and drove the pace from the start, running a PR 2:02.93 basically by himself. It was quite the performance to watch–Andrew kept sub-2 within reach for much of the race. Kyle, Pranav, Justin and Jason all doubled back from the 1600 with good 800 times, along with freshman Max Ready and newcomer Conner Liu.
Meanwhile, in the field events, judge Zoe Wang was exerting iron control over the jump pits. Pranav Pata had a 18’2.5″ personal record in the long jump and backed that mark up with a solid 36’11” mark in the triple, leading both events. Junior Brandon Xu and senior Sarang Deshpande joined Pranav in clearing over 16′ in the long jump, and Sarang, freshman Vincent Zhao, and senior Khang Pham also cleared 30′ in the triple. Freshman Lourdes Diaz set the pace for the girls in the long jump with a 13′ leap; Jennifer Zhao, Sammi, freshman Joshitha (Joey) Suresh and Cheryl Bai also covered more than 12′ . In the triple, Cheryl lead with a 29’11” mark and Jennifer, Lourdes and senior Catherine Cole close behind.
Captain Vibha Iyengar had a classic double of 800m-discus, tossing the disc 69’11”; I’m pretty sure this is her second or third furthest throw of her career. If we get 2020 back on track, I know that Vibha will achieve a lot more in all of her events. Hotly recruited newcomer Olivia Tsui (Vibha has been encouraging Olivia to join track for months, and she has fit right in with our team as a welcome addition) was right behind Vibha with a 67’11”, and Nicole Raphael, Lavinia Lei and Anoushka Lakshmi all had PRs in the 60s. Olivia lead the shot with a 23’11” put, and Anoushka and Lavinia had two more PRs with Vibha, Nicole, and Diya Sarin getting over 20′. The boy throwers continued an outstanding season; Coach Tennyson Heen has more kids and the group has more spirit than ever before. Martin Xiao led both events with a 45’1″ shot put and a 136’2″ discus throw. Captain Eric Zheng also tossed the discus over 100′, and Captain Henry Hodgkins had a shot and discus PR. Sammy Bannerjee, Aravind Subramanian, Joe Flewelling, Nick Hsieh and others had a good day throwing too–adding the the promise of this season and the hope that we can resume competition soon.
A lot of yelling and celebration came from the direction of the high jump pit, as Sammi Dunn equaled her PR of 4’10” in competition, and then with some extra jumps cleared 5’1″–what would have been a 3″ PR and on the verge of a high school-elite level jump! The team was going nuts for Sammi–the coaches believe that Sammi looks particularly powerful this season–hopefully, we will be back together soon so that Sammi can build upon this mark this season. Sophomore Sylvia Li had a 2″ PR in the high jump, while freshman Greyson Mobley and junior Parssa Alimadad both cleared 4’6″ for the boys. Our new high jump coaches, Chrissy Dobbins and David Hartford, both have high hopes for the high jump group (and the team loves working with our new coaches!).
Back on the track, Brooke and Bianca continued to roll with sub-26 marks in the 200m. The twins that are the 1-2 times in ECAL so far this season; Jackie Chang’s 28.56 is 7th. Arnav Raut lead the boys’ heat with a 24.45 that puts him 6th in ECAL. Parky Sood put up a 200m PR in his heat, too.
The 3200 was totally impressive. Sophomore Matthew Sun was first across the line with a 10:38, and Andrew Cole was not far back with a 10:57. Tyler Liu also had a PR 11:22 as the boys had a set of solid marks. For the girls, Sylvana Northrop put up a huge PR with a 10:59.18; this is only the third time a Monta Vista girl has recorded a 32 mark under 11…and Syl accomplished that goal in an inter squad meet! Triya Roy and Nikhita Saldi both went sub-12; five Monta Vista girls are under 12 minutes for the 3200m in only two opportunities this season! To give this feat some perspective, last year only four girls went under 12 all season long for MVTF! The MV girls currently have the fastest seven times in the El Camino League–what a strong showing. The MVTF team is so fit, strong and motivated–it was great to have the opportunity to show the results of all their winter training at the RustBuster and the Carpe Diem Games.
The complete Carpe Diem Games results have been posted. Thank you to Coach Curtis for timing this events, and to Coach Curtis and Hank Lawson for posting the results!
The squad wrapped up with some competitive 4x400m relay teams put together by the athletes, and MVTF cleaned up and headed home after a solid day of competition.
If anyone has photos from Carpe Diem, send them to coach and I’ll add them to this post. It was tough to fire the gun and photograph!
Gratitude
Quite a few athletes came up to the coaches to say thank you for pulling together the Carpe Diem Games. However…I’m so, so grateful for this team and these athletes.
When the announcement came at 2pm that the track meet against Mt. View was cancelled, at many schools and with many teams, the athletes would have said ‘OK, free time’ and athletes would have headed to Starbucks for a pink drink or 7-Eleven for some flaming hot cheetos. The Monta Vista athletes got dressed in their uniforms and came to the track. At the track, when coach explained the Carpe Diem Games, many athletes would have thought ‘this ain’t real’ and mailed in a half-hearted performance; MVTF clapped and got to work, the same as they would have for any meet day. Athletes warmed up in a serious manner, put their game faces on, make the most of what was available, and went out and competed–MVTF athletes gave their best, and made themselves uncomfortable, to see what was possible. The athletes didn’t have to work this hard, but they did.
Thursday could have been a really bad day. But the Monta Vista track and field athletes made the best out of the situation. I don’t think you all appreciate how rare that ability is, to put aside disappointment and try to work hard nonetheless. This character trait is grit, and this character strength will be valuable throughout your life in every aspect of what you hope to achieve. Life does not always go as scripted–not in our professional lives, our academic lives, our personal lives–just as our athletic lives on Thursday did not go as we had planned. The ability to focus and give our best when life goes off script is incredibly valuable. We could have whined and moaned, and spent a few hours thinking how bad the situation is and hashing over a million things that might happen next or over the coming month–few of these things are things that we can control. Instead, we set all that aside and for two hours, Monta Vista track and field did all we could do to make the best of our situation.
Track and field might not be able to save the world, but staying active and fit and goal-oriented is valuable in any situation.
I’m thankful for all of you, and also hopeful for all of you. You are going to be OK, not just over the next month or so, but for your lives. You have the strength of character that will keep you working and keep you positive in the face of adversity. I can’t think of a better trait to have, and can’t think of a better gift for a group of kids I love.
I’m proud and happy and honored to be your coach.
