The Mt. SAC is one of the most incredible experiences a high school athlete can have. Over 22,000 high school athletes compete in 119 races over two days. There is a race for everyone, and a chance for every athlete to compete in an elite event.
Monta Vista went ‘in force’ for the second time, bringing 31 athletes to compete. For the first time, we traveled by bus–much more comfortable than cars and a great time for the team to hang together. Hitting Los Angeles on Friday afternoon was a rush…we had time to get out for a quick shake out run before dinner and still be back at the hotel early. Everyone felt excited, even the coaches, who were wishing that there was a coaches race the next day!
We lucked out with good weather on race day…and turned in some great races. On the downside, we had a few athletes nursing rolled ankles and other injuries who decided to hold themselves out of Mt. SAC and aim for Leagues–a hard decision to make, but very mature, and they all were very supportive of their teammates all day. We also had one athlete on the brink of the podium who had a nasty hamstring cramp; terrible luck, but unfortunately, cramps can strike the best runners (sometimes it feels cramps can hit the best runners more often…I think it is because the best runners can be living on the edge of maximum performance, which unfortunately can lead to cramps and other things that come with pushing limits).
The upside is a much longer list! Jenny Xu (varsity girls) and Brent Mogensen (freshmen boys) both ended up on the podium. We have a long list of athletes who had great trips around the classic 3 mile Mt. SAC course–unfortunately we don’t know exactly HOW good, as I write this, I just heard from the Mt. SAC meet director that results are still not on on line due to a huge computer problem. They may have to enter results manually! Sounds pretty bad to me…I’d be terrified facing the possibility of entering thousands of results manually!). So while we don’t have official times, I can tell you that the varsity boys worked together really well, and passed LOTS of runners in the back half of the race; the same was true of our varsity girls’ team; and almost everyone else came back to our camp site telling the coaches that they felt like they ran their very best and that they ran the course intelligently. That’s what it looked like to the coaches–you guys ran great! Keep checking on the Mt. SAC web site, we are hoping that meet management solves the problem shortly.
Everyone seemed to have a good experience. Coaches will be talking to runners about what you thought about this year’s trip and feel free to give us your thoughts as we think about what to do next year! We hope to get even more participation from the athletes who are getting hooked on running, at all levels.
We hope you remember this trip, and your participation in a great athletic event, for your whole life!
Check out coaches’ photos in the gallery.
