After the last year, we can be forgiven for a little amazement that a CCS meet is actually occurring! But on Saturday, June 12, there we were at Soquel high school for real, live, honest to gosh Central Coast Section track semi-finals.
We found a place to camp under the trees where we could watch the track action, including a birds’ eye view of the pole vault pits where senior Zoë Wang got the day started. With two clean jumps that seemed to clear the bar by a mile, Zoë advanced to the finals. This was the start of a magical day for Zoë as she also moved on to the finals on June 19 in the long jump, triple jump and 100m hurdles. This is the first time that anyone can remember any Monta Vista athlete advancing to the CCS finals in four individual events…all hail Zoë!
Also in the field events, Eric Zheng, Sanmitra Banerjee and Henry Hodgkins all had slots in the throwing trials. I feel like the lack of big invites over the past two seasons hurt these three seniors, as CCS felt pretty ‘big’–I think that if they had been able to compete at more meets like St. Francis, Quicksilver and yes a real Rustbuster in 2021 that would have helped them advance further in CCS. Another foot in the shot for Eric and a less than a foot and a half in the discus for Occidental-bound Sammy would have put them in the finals…argh! Well, still, making CCS was a nice send off for these three seniors who have meant so much to the Monta Vista throwing team for the last four years. Good luck at the University of Washington, Occidental and UC-Merced, boys!
Possibly the most frustrating race was the boys’ 110m hurdles where junior Sotirios Kougiouris took 9th place–when eight athletes advance, being ninth by a tenth of a second can be pretty frustrating. HOWEVER, one of the rules of track or cross-country running (or road running) is that you can’t be too frustrated on a day when you set a personal record…after all, if you just ran faster than you ever have run in your life, you have done your best. You should not be too focused on what others might have done when you did your best. And Soti set not one, but TWO personal records at CCS trials–a 16.13 in the 110mH into the wind, and later another PR with a 42.07 in the 300mH. Well done, Soti!–next year, the finals!
The 3200m was a Monta Vista party, as senior Sylvana Northrop won her heat and had the fastest time of the day while sophomore Nikhita Saldi took sixth in her heat and also advanced to the finals. Sylvana’s 10:54 was not only a personal record but was also an all-time Monta Vista school record! Nikhita is one of only three sophomore 3200m runners, boys or girls, to advance to the finals (there were no sophomores). Senior Rohun Agawal also won his heat to advance to the finals, giving Monta Vista distance running 3 of the 24 spots in the 3200m finals…that’s more than 10% of the athletes in the 150 school Central Coast Section! Wow. Well done!
I think we all treasured this day after more than a year away from competition at this level. For sure, as we sat munching pizza and burritos as we looked out at the ocean and the sunset, we all felt pretty satisfied.
On to Finals! CCS championships are back at Soquel High School on June 19.
Complete trials results are posted.
