Some race days come together and feel almost perfect.
On Tuesday, October 19, Monta Vista Cross Country travelled back to the Baylands cross country course with four more weeks of training in the bank. The air quality was pristine, and the temperature was about 10 degrees cooler than in September. The table was set, but the runners still had to step up and take advantage of the conditions.
The varsity boys were the first on the starting line, and Justin Yu set the tone for the day with a 16:58, good for 20th place overall. Justin’s 16:58 is not only a PR, but is the first time he has every broken 17 in a 5km race! Ari Rajaram and Soti Kougiouris also scored PRs, Alex Nguyen and Matt Sun both improved from their September races, and together with Andrew Cole the team took home an 11th place finish.
Next up, the varsity girls took the stage. First across the line was Nikhita Saldi with a 18:53, good for 8th place overall and a 54 second PR; this is also the second fastest time ever for a MVXC girl on the Baylands course. Jannah Sheriff was close behind in 15th with a 19:40 and a 58 second PR of her own. Vivian Lau and Sydney Stevens both dropped more than a minute from their times in September, and Ellie Hsu and Margaux Francoeur came in side-by-side as the varsity girls’ team had a strong 5th place finish.
For the JV boys, Ethan Lam was the first across with a 21:48. Amogh Rajagopal was close behind with a 22:01 that was a full 75 second PR–the first of many PRs by over a minute during the day! In two years, Amogh has peeled off more than three minutes on the Baylands 5km course! The JV girls had five runners finish in the top 20 (out of 122 finishers), paced by Jasmine Varma’s 6th place 22:13 (a 1:37 PR!), Megan Nieh’s 10th place 22:21 (a 1:28 PR!), Valerie Alzenburg’s 15th place 22:36 (a 51 second PR!), freshman Anika Bhandakar’s 17th place 22:46 (a 1:48 PR!) and Sophia Chen’s 19th pace 22:59 (a 65 second PR!). The top five gave Monta Vista a 46 second spread and a 3rd place team finish, only 12 points out of first place. Sandhya Fasnacht gave MVXC a strong sixth runner with a 23:36 PR and Meena Kolli had an incredible 5:08 PR with her 24:51 and a 52nd place finish! The frosh-soph boys had a tough act to follow, but Denny Dong made a splash with his first place finish and a 17:14 mark (and 81 second PR). Neal Jain and Tanay Parikh had PRs of 2 minutes and 1:12 in 37th and 38th place, and Brandon Xu and Ruhaan Shah added PRs of their own to complete the FSB top five and an 8th place team finish.
A complete list of PRs is needed to appreciate what this team has accomplished. Tuesday’s race was not really the accomplishment–the accomplishment was really all the work that was done in the preceding four weeks, and Tuesday’s results were just the demonstration of that effort. PRs were:
- Meena Kolli 24:51 (5:08 PR)
- Aditi Dantuluri 31:08 (4:30)
- Samhita Kashyap Kiran 26:58 (2:53)
- Joey Suresh 26:55 (2:14)
- Anika Bhandakar 22:46 (1:48)
- Sudipti Dantuluri 26:38 (1:56)
- Jasmine Varma 22:13 (1:37)
- Hemani Kamarshi 26;37 (1:50)
- Megan Nieh 22:21 (1:28)
- Raje Kenyan 25:49 (1:27)
- Siran Gao 25:24 (1:15)
- Jannah Sheriff 19:40 (1:18)
- Nikhita Saldi 18:53 (54)
- Sophia Chen 22:59 (1:05)
- Valerie Ayzenberg 22:36 (51)
- Vera Bondar 26:09 (56)
- Sandhya Fasnacht 23:36 (20)
- Margaux Francoeur 21:46 (4)
- William Wu 22:49 (2:30)
- Neal Jain 19:41 (2:00)
- Jayden Lim 23:11 (2:21)
- Ruhaan Shah 19:58 (1:39)
- Denny Dong 17:14 (1:21)
- Paru Joshi 21:34 (1:36)
- Darren Lin 22:40 (1:39)
- Seshanth Karthik 22:37 (1:34)
- Tanay Parikh 19:48 (1:12)
- Amogh Rajagopal 22:01 (1:15)
- Ethan Lu 20:58 (1:06)
- Brandon Xu 19:56 (46)
- Justin Yu 16:58 (31)
- Soti Kougiouris 20:49 (18)
- Ethan Lam 21:48 (12)
- Ari Rajaram 19:05 (3)
That’s right, 34 personal records set on one day! Amazing. This performance should give the team a lot of momentum as we head towards the league championship meet in two weeks.
Some other notable accomplishments from the day:
- The varsity girls team of Nikhita, Jannah, Vivian, Sydney, and Ellie had the fastest MV team time ever at Baylands (edging out the 2012 team).
- Nikhita and Jannah both moved into the top five all-time for MVXC on the Baylands course.
- Justin scored the 6th fastest time for an MVXC boy at Baylands.
- Denny Dong tied for the fastest time by an MVXC sophomore boy at Baylands (tied with Andy Fang’s mark in 2016).
Complete results are at XC Stats.
Next up will be the FUHSD Championships/Lynbrook Invitational on October 22, where the girls will try to defend their decade-long dominance (also the XC senior ‘night’), followed by the SCVAL Championships at Crystal Springs.
2011 FUHSD Championship Team: Risako Tanida, Coach Johnson, Neha Jammu, Kirsten Do (K-Do), Coach Flatow, Pearl Law, Nandini Chitale, Bridget Gottlieb, Coach Matt
