The Stanford Invitational attracts the best cross country teams from up and down the West Coast, and this year was no exception, with teams from all over California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Idaho, Hawaii and I’m sure from other places also. Yet Monta Vista more than held their own, competing well with these elite programs.
MVXC endured another day of adverse weather. Just to give an idea of how hard the weather was, the average time for the championship girls team was more than 40 seconds slower this year than in 2011! MVXC still have not had a really fast running day this year. Our athletes are doing great…and the times will come.
The boys’ team finished in 19th place in the D1 race out of 35 teams competing. Only three D1 teams (Bellamine, Lynbrook and Santa Teresa) were in front of Monta Vista during a very competitive race, won by Davis High School. The boys worked together well, with only 46 seconds separating MV’s first finisher from our 5th.
The boys were lead by sophomore Rohan Choudhury, who was running his first Stanford. The Stanford invite can encourage runners to get out too fast, but Rohan went out under control and moved up; at the first split point, he was 74th, but passed a net 10 runners to finish 64th. Ajay and Anand also made strong moves in the back half of the race, moving up more than 40 places each.
The Monta Vista girls made a huge statement in their race, with another remarkable improvement. Last year, the girls scored a 15th place; this year they finished 5th, and all the teams in front of the girls came from outside our section! This is an great bump, and the girls improved their average time over last year even with the difficult conditions. The girls were lead by Jenny Xu, who placed 9th in D1.
The girls’ D1 race was as close as it could be; 9 less points would have got the girls to 4th, 1 more point would have dropped us to 6th. You can bet that other coaches are telling their teams this week: ‘Work a little harder and you can catch Monta Vista!’ The girls’ achievement is a tribute to the effort of every individual on the team, who fought for each point with everything they had. Congrats, girls, and keep it up!
The Stanford Invitational is just the beginning…this is not our best course. MVXC trains on hills, hill running is in our DNA and our strength is going to help us more on the challenging courses we race on later this year: Crystal, Artichoke, Mt. SAC and Toro Park. Our runners are strong and determined and just getting started!
There are some photos up in the team gallery for your viewing pleasure!
Complete results at: Stanford Results
Boys’ Results
MONTA VISTA 19th PLACE
Average Time: 17:48
Total Time: 88:57
1-5 Spread: 0:46
244 Finishers
35 Complete Teams
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1 64 1397 Rohan Choudhury SO CCS 17:19
2 103 1400 Zachary Patti JR CCS 17:47
3 106 1401 Ajay Rajamani SR CCS 17:48
4 125 1402 Anand Rao JR CCS 17:58
5 139 1398 Jeffrey Harrison SR CCS 18:05
6 (151) 1399 John Hsiao JR CCS 18:10
7 (156) 1403 Steven Ting SR CCS 18:12
Girls’ Results
MONTA VISTA 5th PLACE
Average Time: 20:25
Total Time: 102:05
1-5 Spread: 2:08
196 Finishers
27 Complete Teams
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1 8 1409 Jenny Xu SO CCS 19:14
2 20 1410 Madeleine Yip FR CCS 19:54
3 37 1404 Julia Chang SO CCS 20:22
4 71 1405 Bridget Gottlieb JR CCS 21:13
5 75 1406 Anna Hsiao FR CCS 21:22
6 ( 87) 1407 Isabel La Plain SO CCS 21:41
7 (126) 1408 Chloe Li SO CCS 22:48
