Monta Vista continued a great season at the SCVAL Championships last Friday May 13–and it’s not over yet!
Certainly highlights were the five athletes who have advanced to the CCS championships:
- Kelly Bishop, who ran a 2:19.57 in the 800m to advance to the CCS championship meet for the third straight season.
- Sarah Feng in the 3200, who ran an 11:11.49 and was the only freshman to advance from the SCVAL in the 3200m. Sarah has the fastest freshman time in the 3200 in all the Central Coast Section–by 14 seconds!–and is in the top 100 in the United States!
- Jessica Ji’s 33’8″ PR in the triple jump earned her a trip to CCS, and like Sarah, Jessica is the only freshman to advance in her event.
- Andy Ma was not only the first Monta Vista boy to break 2 minutes in the 800m (a magic number), since 2012, he also joined the group heading to CCS.
- James Migdal cleared 6’0″ in the high jump, and like Kelly, will be heading to the CCS meet for the third consecutive year.
However our CCS qualifiers are only part of the story. Monta Vista had a plethora of PRs and season bests. Both boys’ and girls’ 4x100m relay teams started off with strong PRS, as ‘all-star’ teams of varsity and frosh-soph athletes gave us a 1.56 second PR for the boys and a 1.30 second PR for the girls. Brent Mogensen ran a 4:25 in the 1600, a wonderful 2 second PR that would have been good for a ticket to CCS in most years, but got boxed in at the wrong time to lead to a wrenching miss. Giselle Kaneda’s 16.97 in the 100m hurdles was a season best, and her first time under 17 in three years; this mark, plus her jumping ability, has the coach at her future college very excited (Coach Bartlett has emailed me several times about Giselle since she accepted at Oxy!). Vamsee Vemulapalli’s 2:00.79 PR in the 800m was oh-so close to the magic 2, but his mark was a great time nonetheless for a first year track athlete (oh, do we wish he had run track for all four years!). Namrata Subramanian finished her high school running career with an 11:50 PR in the 3200m, and an unofficial school record for the seldom run one-shoed 3200m event. Namrata is heading off to Berkeley and she will be missed, we hope she continues to run competitively as she has real talent and the ability to dig deep. Paru Meyyappan turn in an 11:56 season best and gives her great momentum as we roll into prep for MVXC16!
Bennett Zhang’s 9:38 PR in the 3200m was an incredible 14 second PR and is faster than coach’s high school PR; coach is impressed! Brent followed with a 9:58; breaking 10 after a 4:25 mile capped off an impressive night. Mahima Shanware’s 4’9″ narrowly missed getting her into the CCS meet, while Natalie Ohran’s 4’4″ completed a strong season for her, and Aarohi Palkar had a last shot put in high school before heading off to compete for Carnegie-Mellon University next year.
Finishing off the evening were two strong performances in the 4×400 relay. Both boys’ and girls’ teams had big PRs and took 7th (the boys were DQed so not official time but their run was still good). The girls’ relay mark of 4:11.46 was a big PR and is currently 17th best in the section–which is incredibly impressive with three freshmen (Evelyn How, Reema Apte and Alisha Gao) paired with one junior (Kelly). Monta Vista gets EVERYONE back next year and I’d guess that is not true of any of the teams in the section above us. Seriously, if we all keep working, the 4×400 could be an MV ticket to the podium, and maybe even to State, in coming years.
You are a great team, and yet there is better still to come!
As you can see, lots of outstanding performances at SCVALs, and a great way to cap off the season! Now…on to Gilroy and CCS!
Photos and results are online.
Banquet
MVTF held our annual banquet on May 10, and this may have been the best ever! We had great food, both catered and pot luck (I want to know who made the chocolate chip cookies), and it was fun to see everyone outside of workout gear!
There are lots of photos online.
A summary of the awards given is:
Most Outstanding Athlete
James Migdal
Most Outstanding Athlete
Kelly Bishop
Most Valuable Jumper
Jessica Ji
Rookie Jumper of the Year
Cynthia Gong
Coach’s Award
Ryan Lee
Ironman Award
Hardest Working Jumper
Reema Apte
Most Valuable Distance Runner
Brent Mogensen
Most Valuable Distance Runner
Sarah Feng
Ironman Award
Hardest Working Distance Runner
Andy Ma
Ironman Award
Hardest Working Distance Runner
Parvathi Meyyappan
Most Valuable Sprinter
Eliot Lubomirsky
Most Valuable Sprinter
Evelyn How
Rookie Sprinter of the Year
Alisha Gao
Coach’s Award
Victoria Tung
Most Valuable Hurdler
Matthew Ho
Most Valuable Hurdler
Giselle Kaneda
Rookie Hurdler Of The Year
Derek Zheng
Iron Hurdler
Sabrina Hung
Most Inspirational
Ruby Law
Most Inspirational
Bennett Zhang
Most Valuable Thrower
Aarohi Palkar