Monta Vista hosted a three-way meet at Monta Vista on March 22, here at Monta Vista. Three-way meets are fun for the athletes as there is a little more excitement, and the increased competition can often lead to some good performances. It was certainly true for Monta Vista this week! I went back and counted 53 personal records by Monta Vista athletes during this one meet; I don’t track this on a meet-by-meet basis but that seems like a pretty incredible number!
Individual effort and achievements are so important, before we go any further, let’s give a quick acknowledgment of these athletes: Mahima Shanware (twice, 100m and high jump), Salma Sheriff, Jessica Ji (twice!), Aarohi Palkar in the shot, Lucas Chang in both hurdles, Akshey Nama, Wesley Tsai and Rohan Chitale in the same heat of the 100, Angelo Nguyen, Adam Jancis, Anindit Gopalakrishnan, Ajay Mercia in both throws, Sarah Feng, Sanjana Borle (also twice), Sabrina Hung, Valerie Lee, Cheryl Chui, Evelyn How (also quick shout out to Reema and Lauren for jumping into a new event), Risha Baxi, Andrea Chang, Kendall Yu, Lauren Ling, Melinda Ximen (and Bhavna Sud for getting under a round number!), Reema Apte in both horizontal jumps, Cynthia Gong, Nathalie Ohman, Rupali Sujan, Rucha Bhise in both throws, Annabel Li, Shakthi Elangovan (again, twice), Eliot Lubomirsky, Akshay Gopalakrishnan, Guna Vengalas, Morris Chiang in both sprints, Huan Jian Ju, Andrew Chin, Caleb Siow, Jeffrey Xu, Matt Gong, Richard Dowd in both hurdles, Jonathan Sevilla…and I think I have all or most of our PRs! Wow. Take a minute to absorb all that achievement, and let’s celebrate what we have done–and keep striving for more!
And back to the meet…
Kelly Bishop and JJ Escalera (Fremont) hooked up again in a repeat of their battle in the 800m race at De Anza, and this time Kelly came out on top with a 2:20.47 time. Kelly won both the 400m and 800m races at Monta Vista. In the high jump, Mahima Shanware cleared 5′ for the first time in her career; already this year we have had two girls high jump 5′ (Mahima and Jessica Ji). In all of the last five years, we had only had one MV girl jump five! Jessica Ji had an exceptional day, competing as a varsity athlete for the first time and scoring in the high jump, long jump, triple jump and 100m hurdles.
For the varsity boys, Brent Mogensen was the high scorer, winning both the 800m and the 3200m race. Bennett Zhang completed an MV sweep of the distance events by winning the 1600m in 4:43.73. Another high jumper, James Migdal, jumped 5’10” for MV.
The junior varsity girls had several strong performers, lead by double winner freshman Evelyn How, who took both the 100m and 200m races as well as anchoring the winning 4x100m relay team and leading off the winning 4x400m relay. Sarah Feng won both the 800m race in 2:29.22 and the 1600m race with a 5:13.83 (really amazing marks and very encouraging!). Sabrina Hung also had two wins taking both hurdle races, the 100m and 300m hurdles. Another double winner was Evelyn How, who took both the 100m and 200m races as well as anchoring the winning 4x100m relay team and leading off the winning 4x400m relay. Alisha Gao was the winner of the 400m with a 64.57, while Melinda Ximen won the JV girls 3200m race. In the field events, our JV girls Jasmine Tsai, Natalie Ohran and Anita Narkhede swept the top three spots, freshman Reema Apte took both long and triple jump, and Annabel Li won shot put.
Frosh-Soph boys also had a successful day. Eliot Lubomirsky was another double winner, taking both 200m and 400m races while also anchoring the 4x400m relay. Jeffrey Xu was the frosh-soph winner of the 1600m with a 4:54.81, and Morris Chiang was our winner for the 100m with a second in the 200m. Justin Lin took home the 800m race with a 2:12.87, and Richard Dowd was yet another double winner in both 65m and 300m hurdle races. Andy Fang brought home the frosh-soph 3200m race, and Derek Zheng jumped a strong 39’5″ triple jump in addition to his second place finish in the 65m hurdles.
As teams, Monta Vista’s varsity teams were not able to match Fremont and Santa Clara. Our varsity girls fell 77-50 to Santa Clara and 88-39 to Fremont, while the varsity boys went down 89-33 to Santa Clara and 73-53 to Fremont. Our younger teams both recorded sweeps on Tuesday, with the junior varsity girls prevailing over Fremont 111 to 14 and over Santa Clara 101-25, while the boys recorded victories over Fremont 84-41 and Santa Clara 84-43. Our junior varsity girls and frosh-soph boys teams are both 3-0 at the half-way point of the season. Santa Clara and Fremont are both strong programs lead by really impressive coaches who are well respected within the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League and beyond, and I am really proud of our teams! I think that the team spirit we have, the way that our older athletes support and encourage our younger athletes, and the real friendship among so many of our athletes really indicates that the best is still to come for this team.
The detailed results for the meet with Santa Clara and Fremont are linked.
Mr. Ma and my photographs are here, and available for downloading!
