The first day of League Championships is done, and Monta Vista has done some good work already!
Day One focuses on the laned events, with trials in all the individual laned events (sprints and hurdles). The top eight athletes move on to Finals races on Wednesday. Qualifiers included Evelyn How, who will be the second seed in the varsity girls’ 100m as well as qualifying in the 200m; Eliot Lubomirsky, who is top seed in the varsity boys’ 400m along with sophomore Derek Zheng who will be seeded 4th; and the JV girls’ 400m final, where top-seeded Lauren Ling along with Victoria Tung and Claire Ettinger claimed three of the eight lanes for Monta Vista. This is a small sampling of the Monta Vista athletes that qualified for finals; a complete list of finals qualifiers is posted on-line.
Monday also includes some finals, in the frosh-soph boys’ and junior varsity girls’ divisions, and Monta Vista has already claimed some medals and all-league status. All field events for these divisions are finals. Sophomore Anthony Cruz threw 39’10” to claim a third place in the shot, while freshman Sarang Deshpende jumped 37’9″ for a second place in the triple jump and 18′ for another second in the long jump. Pranav Pata and Pranesh Balasubramanian cleared 5’2 and 5’0′ for third and fourth in the high jump to join them on the podium. For the girls, Jasmine Lee cleared 31’2.5″ to finish second in the triple jump, an agonizing quarter inch out of first place. The finals of the 3200m races in these divisions were also held on Monday, and in a stirring finish Nitin Subramanian and Kyle Tsujimoto went 1-2. A Tino runner lead the pack out for the first five laps, with the two Monta Vista runners and a Wilcox athlete strategically laying back. With 1000m to go and the chase pack closing on the leaders, Nitin, Kyle and the Wilcox freshman made a decisive jump to take the lead. The competition turned into a three boy race, with each runner holding the lead at some point in the last 600m. The last lap was around 67 for all three, Nitin winning with a 10:58.93, Kyle in 10:59.53 and Matt Zazlkowski of Wilcox in 10:59.90–all three within one second of each other after eight laps and the next runner a full 24 seconds back. A very fun to watch and well contested championship race!
At the close of the day, the frosh-soph boys sit in first place in the league team competition; if the boys can hang on to this spot, they will claim the league championship after ending the dual meet season tied with Wilcox. Complete results from Monday are posted on line.
We hope to see lots of Monta Vista track fans back on Wednesday at Santa Clara High School for another day of track action, with field events starting at 2:30pm and the first gun on the track at 3pm. The finals schedule is also posted. See you there!