After a season of dual meets and no opportunities to compete at bigger invitationals, Monta Vista track and field athletes were able to compete at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League finals on May 30 at Los Gatos. This big meet provided energy and excitement to help push Monta Vista to PRs–and two school records!
First to compete were the field events. Zoë Wang started things off in the pole vault and immediately got MVXC into a stellar groove, and she recorded an 8″ personal record and a first place finish. Pole vault was the start of a remarkable day for Zoë, as she added three more PRs–o.6 seconds in the 100m hurdles, 14 inches in the long jump, and 11 inches in the triple jump! In addition to scoring PRs in four events, Zoë qualified for CCS in all four events, also. I think the Middlebury College coaches are going to be quite happy to have Zoë on their team next fall (Zoë, I’m also going to tell them about your 400m potential 🙂 ). Great work, Zoë!
While shot was a bit of a struggle, MVXC looked solid in the discus as both Eric Zheng and Sammy Banerjee punched tickets to CCS; Sammy had a 123′-6″ throw for a PR, and Eric and Sammy went 2-4 on the day. Alice Ross was the only freshman girl IN THE ENTIRE 14 TEAM LEAGUE (!!!) who qualified for the SCVAL meet in either throw and she acquitted herself with pride, finishing 12th. (The discus event judge told Coach Flatow that Alice was ‘as cool as a cucumber’ as she competed.) Brandon Xu had a bit of a heartbreak, as he had a big PR in triple in his last jump, only to have two jumpers behind him also PR and push him into the first alternate slot for CCS. Hopefully Brandon can build on his progress at the University of Michigan next fall.
Sammi Dunn had PRs in both the 100m and 200m, Valerie Ayzenberg notched a two second PR in the 400, and Sydney Stevens and Justin Yu each had an 800m PR. Andrew Richardson and Vishal Koppuru had season bests in the 800m and 400m have have nice conclusions to their senior years. Soti Kougiouris had PRs in the 110m and 300m hurdle races, moving on to CCS in the shorter race while scoring a first alternate slot in the 300m.
Sylvana Northrop ran a perfect race in the 16oom. For the first three laps, Syl sat on the early leader from Palo Alto–staying right with the Paly girl stride for stride. At the bell, Syl started pushing with the Paly athlete giving chase. Down the home stretch neither girl would give way and finally, the Paly runner took first with a lean before falling to the ground, a mere 0.oo5 seconds separating the two runners! This was absolutely a perfectly run race strategy and a thrill to watch. As well as a PR, Syl set a new Monta Vista record, breaking a record set by Kelly Bishop.
Syl came back to take first and qualify for CCS in the 3200 as well. Nikhita Saldi ran her third 3200 PR in three weeks, knocking off another 17 seconds to earn her way to CCS. Rohun Agrawal is also heading to CCS after setting a grinding pace that broke up the pack in the second lap. Rohun dared anyone to keep up, and no one did. Between Syl, Nikhita and Rohun, Monta Vista claimed 25% of SCVAL’s 3200m entries to CCS next week!
Complete results are posted, and there are some great photos from Malcom Slaney.
Check back for CCS info!
