Monta Vista T&F has completed the 3rd week of official practice in the 2024 season and with that, we have also completed the 400 Shootout and are staring down Winter Break. Here are a few notes before we jump into the results from the 400 Shootout.
- Attendance is mandatory every day. If you are injured, you should still be at practice unless you are at a doctor appointment for said injury. If you were in a winter sport and that sport is now over, you should be at practice! If the weather is bad, you should be at practice! If you are sick, please stay at home as to not spread whatever you might be sick with.
- We will be practicing during Winter Break. While practice is not strictly mandatory, your coaches strongly suggest that you show up so you keep the momentum going into RustBuster the following week (March 2nd!). Practice times are as follows:
- Distance – 9am, Mon-Fri
- Jumps – 10am, Mon-Fri
- Throws – 10am, Mon-Fri
- Sprints/Hurdles – 1pm, Mon-Fri
- If you have not filled out a form for your uniform, SEE COACH SCIPLIN ASAP! We’ll be handing out uniforms once we’re back from break and you need one to compete in RustBuster.
400 Shootout Recap
First off, I want to say that this was a really fun day and I hope you all agree!! The 400 Shootout really makes you realize that track season is here. For those that don’t know or may have missed the event, the 400 Shootout is an annual intrasquad 400m race for MVTF – everyone runs a 400 (even some coaches, shoutout to Coach Curtis!).While this event does give us coaches a first look at how kids are running, it’s mostly something that we use to have a lot of fun and bring the team together and create the community that we’re going to have throughout the season. I expect our team to carry the same energy we had last night through all of our meets this year!
Let’s get things started with the JV girls. We had twelve JV girls toe the line and half of them were freshman! The first heat saw Lauren Moore burst out with a commanding lead that she held onto through the finish line at just over 75 seconds (1:15.20). In the second heat, Zoe Laruelle ran a time of 1:10.33 to hold off Felicity Ho (1:16.57) and the rest of the field. With that, Laruelle was our top JV girl, followed by Moore, then Ho. Great job ladies!
Felicity Ho (left) and Lauren Moore (right)
Next we’ll take a look at the JV boys. We had 32 boys compete in JV – wow! Our very first heat actually had the winner for JV boys, Graham Ischo with a time of 58.01. Graham notably got out to a very aggressive and impressive start through 200 meters – not to mention he’s also a thrower. The winner of the third heat was freshman and first-day-newcomer Alex Frefel with another time under 59 seconds, 58.30. He and his soccer teammate, Ivan Shilakhov, showed up for their first day being the 400 Shootout and both ran very well – thank you boys for setting a great example! The fourth heat featured another freshman winner and the third best overall JV time of 1:00.88 – nice job Kento Murase. Congrats to our top three JV boys, Ischo, Frefel, and Murase!
Kento Murase (left) and Alex Frefel (right)
Now let’s take a look at Varsity, starting with the ladies. We had two heats of Varsity girls, the first of which was won by Manasi Prasad with a time of 1:21.29! That heat featured a very time finish between senior Tanisha Kholiya and junior Hemani Kamarshi running 1:26.48 and 1:26.63, respectively. Way to fight all the way to the line, ladies! In our top heat, we saw a pretty close finish between second and third place with Valerie Ayzenberg getting the edge on Katie Lee – 1:08.94 to 1:09.11. Our winner, sophomore Lelani Laruelle, had control of the race early and cruised to a 1:05.96. Wonderful job Varsity girls and congrats to our top three, Laruelle, Ayzenberg, and Lee!
Valerie Ayzenberg (left), Lelani Laruelle (center), and Katie Lee (right)
Rounding out the night were the Varsity boys. The first three heats featured wins by Aneesh Boddu (1:03.74), Bradley Dulay (1:02.48), and Sashi Bhagwat (1:00.29). What a race that fourth and final heat was! It was no surprise to see senior Denny Dong launch out to a more than aggressive start, coming in at 200 meters probably somewhere around Usain Bolt’s WR time of 19.19 (don’t quote me). The rest of the pack were settling into what would be an extremely tight finish with four athletes coming in within the same half second! Dong hung onto his momentum, leading the way with a great time of 50.64. Behind were four times that started with 57: Ethan Lu at 57.26, Tanay Parikh at 57.37, Manas Kottakota at 57.48, and sophomore Agasthya Kothuri at 57.63. Great job Varsity boys and especially our top three of Dong, Lu, and Parikh!
Tanay Parikh (left), Ethan Lu (center), and Denny Dong (right)
I hope you all had as much fun yesterday as I did! Let’s take this momentum and charge into the ’24 season. There will be hard times, bad races, hurt legs, etc. but know that you have a great team surrounding you ready to hold you up when you need it!
P.S. See what Coach Flatow is up to in Baltimore: https://www.mvrunning.com/news/day-one-at-hop/