Is it possible that the first day of the year a starter’s gun goes off is the official start of summer?
Well, maybe not. After all, indoor track has been going on in the frozen Northeast for months! But still…for us Californians…the first time we fire a starter’s pistol, track season feels ‘real’!
The 3rd Annual Monta Vista Shoot-Out is an exciting day! This is the day when everyone on the team gets on the line and runs a timed 400m, no matter what their event might be. The 400m is a distance where sprinters, distance runners and everyone meets; it’s a great distance. Also, it’s a good way to hear the crack of the starter’s pistol for the first time of the year in a simple and controlled setting. I think that everyone could feel different from the first moment of practice; voices were a little louder and more insistent, movements were a little faster, eyes were a little wider. Our practice had a completely different level of energy!
I hope that everyone can see why your coaches encourage you all to compete as often as possible. Getting out on the track with competitors (even if they are your own teammates) and having a clock on you gives you a little boost that practice does not give you. This is why you train so hard–so that you can get the most out of the body you have built up!
Also, getting outside your comfort zone is good for more than athletics. Competition, even internal competition, pushes you outside your comfort zone. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable is important not only physically. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable is important metaphorically, also. This trait is what helps you challenge yourself and to try something new and a little bit scary, whether that is a new class or new skill, leaving for an intimidating college a thousand miles from home, or interviewing for a job that feels a little over your head.
So…we compete!
The results of the Shoot-Out were impressive! Among the boys, we saw fourteen runners record times under 60 seconds compared to nine athletes in last year’s Shoot-Out! The group was let by junior Andy Ma’s 55.51, a one second PR for him. Eliot Lubomursky recorded a 56.61, which was six seconds faster than he ran at last year’s Shoot-Out. Other boys with notable PRs included Adam Jancis (ten seconds!!!), Brad Hong (three seconds), and the PR machine Aidan Gottlieb with a seven second PR. Rookie of the year had to be senior Vamsee Vemulapalli, in his very first track season after defecting from tennis, and who ran a 56.21 for the second fastest time of the day!
The number of girls under 70 doubled from last year, with six girls clocking times in the sixties! The remarkable thing was that four of these girls were freshmen, with Evelyn How, Alisha Gao, Sarah Feng and Claire Chang all coming in under 70 seconds! Evelyn led the group with a quick 66.34, followed by Alisha’s 68.23–wow! What a start for a group of freshmen that could make noise for years. Not to be outdone, Namrata Subramanian made a statement that she wants to have a senior season to remember by running a six second PR to get under 70 for the first time in her life, with a 68.49–nice! Anella Palacpac (one second), Sabrina Hung (six seconds), Anjini Venugopal (three seconds), Carly Lo (two seconds), and Valerie Lee (five seconds) all had improvements too.
Thanks to Jim and Rose for coming out to provide FAT (Fully Automated Timing) for the event, and thanks to Coach John McKeeman for inspiring Monta Vista Track & Field to start this tradition by sharing his own high school’s season opening event with us.
Off we go with another great season of Monta Vista Track!
Complete results have been posted here.
