The MVXC girls wrapped up our XC season with some really good work at the State meet!
On a chilly and blustery day that threatened rain constantly, the girls went out and showed the results of three months of hard work.
The California State meet is the Olympics of high school cross country; it’s truly a different race. Right from the start the whole pack goes out like fireworks; some can sustain the pace and some cannot. MVXC went out with their normal intelligent pace, running according to their plans and not being baited into mistakes. At one mile, Kelly had positioned herself solidly and there was a pack of five MV girls not far behind. Our pack broke apart a bit as runners moved up, and their toughness and intelligence showed itself as EVERY one of our runners moved up! Check out our placement from the one mile split to the finish:
| Athlete | Place at Split | Place at Finish | Net Runners Passed |
| Kelly Bishop | 110 | 64 | 46 |
| Sarah Feng | 123 | 67 | 56 |
| Triya Roy | 137 | 104 | 33 |
| Claire Chang | 139 | 108 | 31 |
| Paru Meyyappan | 157 | 116 | 41 |
| Akshara Majjiga | 165 | 122 | 43 |
| Salma Sheriff | 186 | 141 | 45 |
Think about that! Our athletes were passing competitor after competitor. That was incredibly strategic racing, knowing ourselves, and not being sucked into the craziness that the State meet can become for so many athletes.
At the end, our girls finished 19th in all of California D1, 66th overall in California, and we were the 5th team overall in the Central Coast Section (moving up one spot from the Section meet). Monta Vista girls now own the fifth longest active streak of consecutive State appearances in our entire Section (four straight years is a tribute to the entire team!). The 2016 squad now owns the fourth fastest team-time in Monta Vista history on the Woodward Park course, a mere 40 seconds out of second place all-time. Remember–this is over more than 50 years of Monta Vista history!
That sounds like a pretty great season to me. I’m sure that it does to you, too!
I hope everyone is happy as we think back about what we have accomplished in 2016. As we think about this year, I think it is important to think about our four-year MVXC runners: Kelly Bishop, Paru Meyyappan, Salma Sheriff, Aidan Gottlieb, Andy Ma, Scott Gregory, and an almost/honorary-four year runner, Bennett Zhang. All of these athletes made a big impact on our team. They have donated some of their DNA to our team, and things they have taught younger runners will reverberate for years in our team culture. Your coaches can see things that originated in athletes now at college still reflected in our current runners; you don’t know how the things you do can continue to effect others for years, like ripples in a pond after a pebble is tossed in. You don’t know what the impact will be.
Looking forward, the best is yet to come. While people we value will be away at college next year, we have boys and girls that are ready to take up the challenge and push MVXC to new heights and continue the successful tradition we have established! The best is yet to come, really!
Complete results at XC Stats and State Meet Site.
“Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.”
–Angela Duckworth
You all have done quite a lot with your potential. And I believe we will do even more.
