Matadors are not afraid of birds

Did you know that the peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on the planet (and also Coach Smith’s favorite bird)? They can reach 240 mph when in their characteristic high-speed dive while hunting prey. Welp, too bad for the Saratoga Falcons because this past Thursday, it seemed that Monta Vista were the fastest! Oh, and since we’re at it, did you also know that the California Condor is the largest land bird in North America with a wing span over 9 feet?! Welp, too bad the MacDonald Condors could not wrap their wings around Monta Vista this Thursday either.

If it’s not clear from that very well-thought-out intro, Monta Vista track & field had an impressive showing winning 7 out of 8 divisions at the Saratoga/MacDonald double dual meet this week, hosted by Saratoga High School. “Wait, double dual meet? 8 divisions???” You heard that right! A double dual meet is when two dual meets are being contested on the same track – well, technically it’s 3 dual meets: Monta Vista, Saratoga, and MacDonald all competed together in the same heats on the track and flights in the field, however, when the meet is scored it’s scored as separate dual meets. So there’s a Monta Vista vs Saratoga score, a Monta Vista vs MacDonald score, and a MacDonald vs Saratoga score. The JV boys beat Saratoga but lost to MacDonald by only 7 points, while our Varsity divisions won against both schools and our JV girls won against both schools.

I’ll be honest, I had a lot of fun writing this first section of the write up (sorry for the shade, ‘Toga and MacDonald). Having fun with the things that you care about and spend a non-trivial amount of your time on is a real gift. We don’t have a ton of time to run high school track and when it’s over, it’s over. Yeah sure, you can come back and coach, but it’s definitely not the same. You don’t get to do this forever, so why not have the absolute most fun you can with it? I think this meet was a lot of fun, especially at the end when we had a bunch of intrateam face-offs in the 4x400m relay! What I really want from you all is to carry that joy throughout the rest of the season and find more ways to help your teammates find joy in what we’re doing together! And since we’re on the topic of fun, I want you all to particularly pay attention to our freshman boys group because I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a group have more fun with the sport than them – let them be your example. Alright, now let’s dig into some performances.

Girl’s team performances

As per my last email (aka, the 3 paragraphs above), we know that our Varsity and JV girls both beat Saratoga and MacDonald. What you may not know is just how handily they accomplished these victories; JV was 69-16 and 62-24 against Saratoga and MacDonald, respectively while Varsity was 90-33 and 101(!!!)-34 against Saratoga and MacDonald, respectively. I mean, those numbers speak for themselves.

Now for our JV event winners – I’ll only list out who won overall, against both teams, but be aware that for anyone who got beat by only MacDonald athletes OR beat by only Saratoga athletes, you did earn a 1st place against the other team! Overall winners were Viha Gopalan in the long jump, triple jump, and 100m, Meyra Olcay in the discus throw and shot put, Naomi Hsu in the 1600m and 800m, Melinda Zhao in the 3200m, and both of our relays made up of Sofia Grigolia, Jasmine Zhao, Felicity Chu, and Gopalan for the 4x100m and Myra Mishra, M. Zhao, Medha Rustagi, and Allison Su for the 4x400m!

Our Varsity event winners were Clara Fan in the high jump, triple jump, and 100m hurdles, Gillie Ross in the discus throw and shot put, Dylan Hwang in the long jump, Sophia Yamada in the 400m, Anika Bhandarkar in the 800m, and both of our relays made up of Katie Lee, Zoe Laruelle, Raji Kenyan, and Yamada for the 4x100m and Lee, Kenyan, Gabriella Slade, and Bhandarkar for the 4x400m!

Boy’s team performances

Our JV boys beat Saratoga 52-43 and fell to MacDonald 53-60. The Varsity boys beat Saratoga 71-56 and MacDonald 87-33! On the JV side, we did not have any Monta Vista athletes in 4 events – hopefully this shows you guys why your coaches want you participating, contributing, and trying new events!

Event winners on the JV side were Riu Yamada in the 1600m, Constantine Chua in the 65m and 300m hurdles, Aaryan Samanta in the 100m, Tarun Gandhi in the 800m, Kento Murase in the 3200m, and both relay teams made up of Evan Chen, Samanta, Chua, and Jeffrey Choy in the 4x100m and the 4x400m!

Varsity winners included Ryan Shen in the high jump and long jump, Jayden Tang in the 100m and 200m, Eddie Fan in the discus throw, Adam Abdelrahman in the shot put, Agasthya Kothuri in the triple jump, Manas Kottakota in the 300m hurdles, and both relays made up of (one person who filled in, let me know who!) Rishi Bhagatwala, Kottakota, and Tang in the 4x100m and Darren Lin, Kottakota, Alex Frefel, and Tang in the 4x400m!

45 PRs total!

22 Girls PRs:

Gabriella Slade – 200m
Lauren Moore – 200m
Sophia Yamada – 400m
Gabriella Slade – 400m
Anika Bhandarkar – 800m
Allison Su – 800m
Naomi Hsu – 1600m
Myra Mishra – 1600m
Medha Rustagi – 1600m
Clara Fan – 100m hurdles
Zoe Laruelle – 100m hurdles
Evan Greene – shot put
Sofia Schilling – shot put
Meyra Olcay – shot put
Anna Bauer – shot put
Allie Rummelhoff – discus throw
Anna Bauer – discus throw
Jasmine Zhao – high jump
Sofia Grigolia – long jump
Zoe Laruelle – triple jump
Lauren Moore – triple jump
Jasmine Zhao – triple jump

23 Boys PRs: