Monta Vista Cross Country opened up the league season with stirring performances at the Central Park meet on Tuesday, September 27.
The boys’ teams all came out strong, with the Varsity boys (second to Palo Alto out of the 14 teams in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League), Sophomore and JV boys (also taking home second) recording excellent team finishes. The leading boys’ performance was turned in by our freshman group, who finished first (getting some revenge over Palo Alto who took second). The frosh boys, I’m told, dominated last year when they ran together at Kennedy Middle School; if they continue to work together, train in the off season, take care of all the cross-training business…could this be a historic class of boys? Who knows!
The girls also put up great numbers, with the Varsity girls recording a team win and the frosh-soph girls coming home in third.
Individually, there were plenty of standout performances. Sarah Feng, Claire Chang, Paru Meyyappan, Kelly Bishop, Salma Sheriff, Bennett Zhang, Jeffrey Xu, Scott Gregory, Andy Fang, Kingsley Wang, Andy Ma, and Justin Lin all added themselves to the Monta Vista all-time list for Central Park. Aidan Gottlieb had the most improvement, with an incredible 4:20 improvement over his race in 2014, with Scott, Forest, Bennett, Andy Ma, Jason, Edwin and Matt Gong also improving more than a minute.
Also notable were our JV boys who once again started a receiving line at the finish of the race. One of the great things that your coaches and parents saw was that this movement was joined by members of other teams who got in line too, and Monta Vista’s frosh-soph girls also started their own receiving line. THIS RECEIVING LINE IS AN INCREDIBLY COOL AND IMPRESSIVE TRADITION! Showing this kind of respect to your fellow runners and competitors, and to our sport, is moving and visible and important. Somehow, in an unexpected way, this small act of respect and thoughtfulness on your part will come back and benefit you. I don’t know how, I don’t know when, and I can’t even tell you if you will realize the payoff when it happens; but I do believe that the universe does pay back acts of character and kindness and respect, like the act of paying respect to others. And–your coaches are parents are proud of you. Respect for you!
Complete results from Central Park are available at XCStats.
Monta Vista also is well positioned in the SCVAL Cup standings, with xx athletes now in the top 25 of their division–more than any other school. Check out the SCVAL Cup Standings. (What is the SCVAL Cup? The Cup is a way to recognize consistent, individual competitiveness in SCVAL team races; the SCVAL Cup rules are here. You coach and Hank Lawson came up with this idea last year, and here it is! Expect a little reward for winners at the end of the season.)
Next up is the Artichoke Invitational in Half Moon Bay on October 1 (the same race where Coach Flatow won his first invitational medal, back in the dark ages).
Go MVXC!
