A week after a wet and cold RustBuster-like meet at the SCVAL Championships, Monta Vista went down for a sizzling hot CCS Championship trials at Gilroy High School on Saturday, May 13.
At 10am, freshman Lelani Laruelle turned up the heat with a personal record 16′-4.25″; Lelani was only a half inch away from an automatic berth in the finals next Saturday. Argh! Lelani is the first alternate in the long jump finals. Only one freshman is in the finals, so Lelani is in great position to progress during the rest of her high school career–number 13 in all of CCS as a freshman is fantastic!
Junior Ethan Lu got in the starting blocks for the 110m hurdles, and wrapped up his season with a 15.24 mark, good for 12th place in CCS. Denny Dong got on the line in the 800m and earned the first finals berth for a Monta Vista athlete, running a 1:56.96 PR that places him as the 6th seed in next Saturday’s championship race. Nice work! Hurdler Yvonne Chen was in lane 1, heat 1 of the girls 300m hurdles and ran a 50.09, an agonizing .01 off her PR, and earned her a 21st place finish in the CCS championships. (Remember there are almost 200 schools in CCS; Ethan’s 12th, Denny’s 6th, and Yvonne’s 21st are outstanding!)
Sophomore Clara Fan chose to compete in both the high and triple jump; this is a challenging double as the events run simultaneously. Clara has to check in for both events and then move back and forth. Clara started in the triple jump and fired off a PR in her first jump. That’s a good way to take the pressure off! Clara then ran down to the other side of the track to compete in the high jump along with Lelani. Clara jumped clean all the way to 5′-2″ which qualified for finals; Lelani missed advancing by one clearance, but LR will be back! Clara then trotted back to the triple jump, where she continued her roll with yet another PR of 37′-11.25″ that was the longest jump of the day–and the second furthest jump all-time for a Monta Vista athlete!
The Central Coast Section Championship Finals will be held next Saturday, May 20 in Gilroy! Wear your purple, come down and cheer for Clara and Denny, and see a great day of track and field!
