MVXC had a memorable time at the 44th annual Artichoke Invitational–the coach only has one single complaint–read on!
The frosh-soph girls lead off the day, with Claire and Sarah hammering at the front of the pack from the start of their race. Under constant pressure from the front runners, the lead pack broke up quickly, and Claire and Sarah were left to duel with a runner from Fremont. At the finish, the three SCVAL runners ended right on top of each other with our two girls going 2-3. Akshara, Anjali, Mizuki and Sanjana all finished in the top 25 as the Matador ladies ended up on the top of the podium in the first race of the day!
Next up, the frosh-soph boys had another outstanding result in their race, with Jeffrey taking home a second place finish and Andy, Justin, Ryan, Kingsley and Eliot all taking home medals for top-25 finishes. The boys’ dominating runs gave the team our second finish of the day atop the championship podium!
Solid runs by all our JV runners set the stage for our varsity girls to take the field, where they took home our third meet championship! One of the impressive things about the girls performance is that due to illness and injury, MV fielded a team with the minimum of five runners–yet they brought home a narrow two-point victory over CCS rival Menlo-Atherton. Remember that with only five runners, if any of our five girls had let even two runners pass them, then we are in second place…this was a really gutsy performance by Kelly, Anna, Maddy, Isabelle and Salma! Kelly’s time was one of the best 20 times ever recorded on the Half Moon Bay XC course.
The last race of the day was the varsity boys’, and they missed a clean sweep by only 8 points, taking second to North Coast power Northgate, currently ranked 5th in the NCS. This was a very dense race, and ten or twenty seconds was the total difference between first and runner up! Brent, Andy, Vamsee and Bennett all brought home medals for finishing in the top 25 of the varsity race!
Monta Vista brought home about 41 medals to go with our three plaques, more hardware than we have ever hauled back across the coastal mountains. However, all this bling is not what made your coaches the happiest. From top to bottom, Monta Vista runners competed hard. Not every team has that level of commitment, many teams have runners that give a pretty half-hearted effort. Our team is full of runners that are trying to explore their limits, and see what they can accomplish. Billy Mills says, “The ultimate is not to win, but to reach within the depths of your capabilities and to compete against yourself to the greatest extent possible. When you do that, you have dignity. You have the pride. You can walk about with character and pride no matter in what place you happen to finish.” Our runners certainly buy into that belief.
Also, our runners did a great job of supporting each other. As the afternoon went on, Monta Vista athletes grouped in different places around the course to cheer for each other. As the coaches walked around the course, we would find athletes find funny places all around the course…behind trees, high in the baseball press box…cheering for their teammates. It is easy to see that the cheering made a big difference to our athletes. You might see someone straining during the middle of the race, and then they would hear their name yelled out by a group of MVXC athletes, and the runner would pick up her head, smile, and pick up the pace a bit as they headed towards the finish line!
The Northgate coach came and talked to the MV coaches afterwards, and was truly impressed by our team–the way you warmed up together, the way you competed and battled for every spot, for the way you cheered for each other. Coaches hardly ever come and give compliments like this to other teams…you guys earned this compliment and should be proud!
This team is a hard working group, and you are making incredible progress both in fitness and in mental strength. You are racing hard and smart! You are all so fun to watch!
After the race, the team headed down to the beach for a party afterwards. Most of the team ran the two miles to the beach, even after racing! And…running to the beach was the team’s idea, NOT the coaches! A few years ago the varsity teams started running to the beach, but now this is a team-wide tradition. Again…your coaches are so proud of you for doing this on your own!
A big shout out to Mrs. Loke and Mrs. Imamura for organizing the beach party–despite the windiest weather we have ever had for our beach party, this may have been the best beach party we have had! Thank you!
PRs were recorded by Andy, Aidan, Brighton, Dan, Edwin, Angelo, Ryan, Spencer, Jason, Matthew, Scott, Bennett, Rahul, Vamsee, Forrest, Brent, Sabrina, Kelly, Isabelle, Mizuki, Anna, Akshara, and Jae Youn–25 new PRs!
Great job, everyone!
Results are available at XCStats.
Oh…and what was the one complaint that coach has? Simple–what happened to my purple nail polish??? One of my favorite things of the season and I have to wait for next year!!! 