On a perfect Friday for track, seven Monta Vista athletes punched their tickets for the CCS tournament at the SCVAL championships.
The Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) sends the top 6 athletes in each event to the Central Coast Section (CCS) championship meet, to be held in Gilroy on May 19 and 26.
On the boys’ side, senior Kevin Bishop lead the way with second place finishes in the 1600 and 3200. The 1600 was a particularly thrilling finish, with Kevin and Yohaness Estafanos of Milpitas separated by only 0.07 seconds in a sprint to the finish! See you at CCS, Yohaness…we are expecting some very exciting distance races in the CCS meet!
Senior Arvind Rao pushed his 800M personal record down a bit more, with a 1:57.76 mark that was good for 3rd place and a trip to CCS. Arvind’s dedicated work for the last 12 months continues to pay off!
Gokul Parakulam had big PRs in the triple jump–a 41’4″ jump, more than a foot further than his previous best of 39’10.25″ only a week before at the El Camino League meet–and in the long jump, where his 20′ jump topped his previous best by 10″ and was good enough for a 5th place finish and a trip to Gilroy! For those of us who watched Gokul box-jumping again…and again…and again…this last week, we know where the magic came from! Someone might owe Coach Erica McLain a bunch of flowers or a big box of chocolates 🙂
Frosh distance sensation Jenny Xu will be making her first trip to CCS after her 10:40/3rd place finish in the 3200M. Jenny was the first freshman finisher in the 3200 and looked strong the entire way.
Completing the list of Monta Vista representatives at CCS next week is the boys’ 4×400 relay team, where Surafael Yared, Michael Lu and Bumpei Maeda combined with Arvind to return a relay team to CCS for the second straight year (Surafael and Bumpei also ran in the individual 800). Last year, Monta Vista sent one individual and one relay team; this year we are sending four individuals as well as a relay. Championships are not the only way to recognize success, but these CCS positions do reflect the hard work put in by the athletes on Monta Vista’s track and field team. Hard work leads to improvements, leads to PRs, leads to…well, who knows?
Other athletes delivered notable performances also. Freshman speedster Angella Qian ran her best 800M of the year with a 2:23 flat clocking–only o.08 seconds from the last CCS spot in the 800M! Touch your finger to your nose; that’s more than 0.08 seconds. Argh! Angella ran the fastest 800M of any freshman in our 14 school league and we know that she is going to be back, stronger and faster than ever. Angella had a truly special first season of track & field.
Senior Allison Win ran both the 100M and 300M hurdles, and while she did not move on to CCS, in the last week she set new PRs in both events. Likewise, seniors Ryan Chui in the 110M hurdles and Jacob Lui in the 300M both set PRs in leagues and came close again in SCVALs. That’s a great way to end high school track careers! Monta Vista is going to truly miss Allison, Ryan, Jacob and a great senior class of hurdlers. Junior Chris Ma ran a 17.55 in the 110M hurdles, barely missing his own PR set just a week earlier.
Senior Sayali Khare posted a season best in the long jump, while her triple jump in leagues the week before remains her season best in that event. Bridget Gottlieb ran a fine 5:49 in the 1600, only a week after a personal best 5:46.59 in leagues. Senior Neha Jammu made her last meet in a Monta Vista uniform memorable, with a 2:34.29 in the 800M which was 7 seconds better than her previous PR set only a week before and an astounding 26 seconds under her best 800M time from last year! Pearl Law ran a 12:03 in the 3200M, which was both frustrating and amazing; frustrating because it was a few seconds off of her PR last week but amazing because Pearl has still knocked more than a minute off last year’s best time. Kiersten Chuc and other girls who threw the discus early in the day had to contend with wind right in their faces, which made it difficult to improve upon Kiersten’s PR set in leagues a week before. Hannah Ho missed CCS in the high jump, yet remains one of the top freshman high jumpers in the section; we learned a lot and she will be back too. Think about some of the young track talent our girls have–Jenny, Bridget, Angella, K-Chuc and Hannah are all freshman and sophomores, and together with many other young, fast, athletic and strong girls, Monta Vista is well stocked for next year and beyond.
