Santa Clara Valley Athletic League cross country teams were back in action, finally, on February 21!
Almost a full year after the 2020 track season ended with the cancellation of the track team’s first SCVAL dual meet, MVXC got on the starting line with live competition. League coaches, and in particular Los Altos coach Stephanie MacKenzie, put together a competition plan that was compliant with the Santa Clara County health directives under the purple tier: All competitions were on on school grounds, no more than three teams competing together at one time, wave starts, athletes using masks at all times except when racing, and other rules to promote athlete, coach and community safety.
As soon as our season started, the coaches noted that the energy level at practice perked up. Workout days seem more focused; there is more intensity and attention before and during, and more animated chatter afterwards. This energy is fun to see! This has been a difficult year, to say the least, and to see MVXC getting strong as a season starts is a joy.
At 12:06pm, the first wave of Monta Vista and Homestead athletes were launched. Rohun Agrawal went out quickly and decisively, taking a sizable lead over the entire field during the first lap of the track. Rohun crossed the one mile mark at just over five minutes and kept the pressure on the rest of the way, finishing with a 10:30 mark for the 2.1 mile Los Altos course. Rohun was 45 seconds in front of the first Homestead runner, and the best time of the entire day by five seconds (giving Rohun the all-time record on this young course (which had been created yesterday…but still, course record!).
Juniors Matthew Sun and Andrew Cole both were under 12 minutes on the day, not far off the brisk pace set by Rohun. Alex Nguyen was the top sophomore with a 12:25 mark, while freshman Denny Dong completed the top five boys with a 12:38 clocking–very solid for his first high school race! Returning CCS varsity runners Pranav Reddy, Sahil Goel and Justin Yu all knocked some racing rust off the racing flats, and senior Andrew Richardson is working hard to get back with the squad; our strong varsity boys are going to be ready to show even more in four weeks.
Sylvana Northrop fearlessly chose to launch with 19 varsity boys in wave one, and all the varsity boys were hearing footsteps as Syl opened up with a 6:10 first mile. Sylvana completed her first race of the season with a 12:54 run, almost a full minute in front of the first Homestead girl. Syl had the fifth best time for any girl all day. Nikhita Saldi, freshman Margaux Francoeur, Ellie Hsu and Sydney Stevens all finished within 35 seconds of each other to give Monta Vista a fine top five, with Vivian Lau (another returning CCS veteran) and newcomer Christy Feng (a stellar recruit from the water polo team!) only seconds behind. Monta Vista’s depth can be formidable, and as the season progresses, we are going to see even more results from our deep team.
Overall, the girls finished 6th in the league and the boys 7th. This is a solid start, and we can build on that, for sure!
Because this is the first time we have run this course, and this season is so odd after an 11 month layoff, we cannot highlight the PRs as we usually do. However, there are a few things we can note. For one, a huge shout out to first time cross country runners who came from other sports–Sophia Chen and Jasmine Varma from basketball, along with Christy Feng from water polo. Athletes that have a burning desire to compete, at anything, are the kind of athletes any team will want. The importance of having the drive to go out and try something new, the willingness to get out and test themselves, says so much about these three…I know they will go far, not only in athletics. I can’t help but believe they will go out and challenge themselves throughout their lives.
Another athlete to note is freshman Megan Nieh. Look at her mileage log; 28 miles a week, 24, 30, 25, 34…consistently racking up the work. And along with that, steady improvement from a 9:02 per mile pace on October 2 when we ran Trample the Virus, to 8:11 per mile when we ran Pandemic Challenge 2, to 7:35 per mile at Los Altos…that is quite an improvement. Running rewards sustained, consistent effort over time with improvements…just like most of the important and challenging skills we want to acquire during our lives, whether that is mathematics or languages or writing or almost anything. Improvements are not always linear, and the improvement is not always closely correlated with the effort that we feel we are making…but improvement will come. We need to trust the process and embrace the effort, and the grind, and have faith that our effort will yield improvements–in our running and elsewhere.
Over the last decade, a strength of the MVXC team culture has always been a group commitment to sustained, gritty, effort. MVXC athletes have valued grit and effort in ourselves and honored that trait in our teammates. One of the moments I am thinking about right now is a senior boy telling me about why he thought a sophomore boy was going to be really good, saying to me thoughtfully, “that kid is tough to drop”. I have this clear memory of the way that the older boy respected the drive and determination of the younger kid. He wasn’t saying that the younger athlete was fast or gifted; the traits that were impressive were grit and effort and passion. THAT is what matters to our team–grit, persistence, effort. If every year our team maintains these values, and we add new members that share those values–whether those are gritty freshmen or athletes from other sports that want to be challenged–we are going to have great teams, no matter where we finish.
This last year has tested these character traits like never before. And our culture is still there. I know it.
I like this team. No, I love this team.
Complete results are at XCStats. Malcolm Slaney has posted photographs you can see and download.
See you next Saturday for a race at Los Gatos!
