Oh my goodness, our athletes looked great on Monday!
Monday was the El Camino League Trials day for all events 400m and less in length, and also finals day for FS/JV field events and the FS/JV 3200m. Monta Vista has already scored 18 all-league awards in the junior varsity and frosh-soph divisions (including five individual league championships!), and MV qualified 21 athletes through to finals on Wednesday (guaranteeing that they will score points for MV).
The JV girls’ team were locked in a tight battle with Santa Clara through three events, but then Cynthia and Reema’s 1-2 in the triple jump followed by an amazing 1-2-3-4 in the 3200m by Claire, Akshara, Anjali and Sanjana racked up 47 quick points and gave the girls a 94-59 lead going into Wednesday. The frosh-soph boys sit nicely in second place, overcoming a lack of throwers with strength in jumps and distance. Derek won both long and trip jump while Jeffrey took the 3200 to lead the scoring. We are all doing great! We don’t need to be superhuman, we just need to keep being ourselves and the results will come. You all are doing great just keep doing the same thing!
I saw a lot of hand shaking and back patting of both teammates and competitors after Tuesday’s races, and I saw several people saying thank you to the starters and volunteers. That is great sportsmanship, and shows that you have a lot of class. Being humble and positive no matter what is happening matters a lot.
You cannot control where you finish in a race on a given day. What you can control is your effort, your attitude, and the way you treat everyone around you. Control what you can, be as positive as you can, and you can be proud of yourself. Good job, all of you!
Here is the thing–while I am incredibly proud of the great marks the team put up, what I am even more proud of is the effort and commitment and bravery that everyone on the team showed yesterday. Every MVTF athlete competing tried their best. I saw student-athletes working as hard as they could, whether they were competing for 4th or 14th place. I was proud of every one who was willing to put themselves out there to compete against others and more importantly against themselves. The willingness and desire to get out and try matters more than the result.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt
Excerpt from the speech “Citizenship In A Republic” delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910
Complete trials results and the program for Wednesday’s finals are on-line. Finals start at 3pm (2:30pm for field events). The meet sheet for both days is still posted.
Parents and fans, please come out on Wednesday afternoon at three o’clock at Saratoga High School to cheer the action!
JV Girls and FS Boys All-League / Medalists (top five)
3200: Jeffrey Xu, Kingsley Wang, Claire Chang, Akshara Majjiga, Anjali Thontakudi, Sanjana Borle
High Jump: Ryan Lee, Anita Narkhede, Anjini Venugopal
Long Jump: Derek Zheng, Reema Apte, Cynthia Gong
Triple Jump: Derek Zheng, Cynthia Gong, Reema Apte
Discus: Annabel Li, Rupali Sujan
Shot Put: Annabel Li
Finals Qualifiers:
Matthew Ho VB 300h
Giselle Kaneda VG 100h
Derek Zheng FSB 65h
Richard Dowd FSB 65h, 300h
Shakthi Elangovan FSB 65h
Eliot Lubomirsky FSB 400, 200
Akshay Gopalkrishnan FSB 400
Morris Chiang FSB 100m
Sabrina Hung JVG 100h, 300h
Annabel Li JVG 100h
Alisha Gao JVG 400, 200
Reema Apte JVG 400
Victoria Tung JVG 400
Evelyn How JVG 100, 200
Risha Baxi JVG 100
Lauren Ling JVG 200
First/Second Alternates: Come and be ready!
Vincent Kao VB 400
Jessica Ji VG 100h