Finally, a little taste of Spring track weather! Monta Vista arrived at St. Francis for one of our favorite invitationals and for once, we did not have to worry about rain.
Coach Flatow was on the track pre-dawn, with Nerea Northrop who was warming up for the first event of the day–the varsity girls 3000 went off at 8am. (Thank you to the Lynbrook coaches who werer there early and helped Coach Flatow set up the canopy, and thanks to Nerea’s sidekick Sydney Stevens who was on hand to support her friend.) Nerea started the day off with a well-run race, negative-splitting on her way to a season-best equivalent.
Ethan Lu was on the track not long after and scored a 15.96 in the 110 hurdles, a personal record and his first time sub-16. In the 800m, both Monta Vista varsity entries had PRs–first Valerie Ayzenberg with a 2:31.51, then Denny with a 1:59.45, good for second place (and the first MV podium placement and a St. Francis top-three shirt)! Denny opened the race with a 24 second 200m on his way to his first sub-2 800–the other boys should thank him for dragging them out so fast, as all but one boy in Denny’s heat had PRs! That was an amazing heat, and one of the reasons I love track–everyone in that heat should be happy with a PR, no matter where they placed. Denny continued a busy day with a near-PR in the 400.
The frosh-soph boys’ mile saw Ruhaan Shah record a 5:10.23, which would have been a 1600 in-route PR–he will get the 1600 PR soon enough. The girls pretty much had a cross-country team in the mile races–Anika Bhandarkar in the frosh-soph division, and Margaux Francoeur, Sydney, Ridhma Katare, Madi Polidoro and Megan Nieh running varsity. Ridhima ran a PR, while Margaux, Sydney, Madi and Megan had season bests. Katie Lee followed up with an 8th place finish and a season best in the 100m–keep building!
The afternoon saw Ethan come back for the 300m hurdles, along with Raje Kenyan who also ran both hurdle races. That cleared the track for relays the rest of the day. The SMR (100-100-200-400) was spectacular, as Ethan and Denny teamed with Hayden Selvakumar and Sean Basu to win the race from the second heat–with Denny running a stirring 6th-to-first leg for the win! This is why in a relay, you never give up; even if you can’t catch the person in front of you on your legs, making up a couple of seconds could help your teammate catch one (or more) athletes on the next segment. The same boys teamed up for a 4×4 in the last heat of the day–yes, that’s right, Monta Vista was in the very first and the very last events on the track!
In field events, freshmen Ryan Shen and Agasthya Kothuri found the podium, in the high jump and the triple jump. Ryan’s 5′-6″ jump was a PR; Joseph Han had a solid 5′ jump also. Agasthya also had a PR with his impressive 38′-9″ triple, and sophomore Darren Lin had PRs in both long and triple jump. Clara Fan and Lelani Laruelle tore through the frosh-soph jumps, with three wins, a third, a fourth, three PRs and two SRs–wow. Watch out, Firebird next week, along with senior Joey Suresh,, these three could do damage! In the throws, senior Lavinia Lei had her last visit to St. Francis, while Fiona Rusak and Alex Sharma had their first–it’s always good to get that first big-invite experience and build on that going forward.
A quick shout out to two track fans…Anika Bhandarkar stayed long after her race to watch the invitational sections and see some of the best runners in the section. Not only is Anika a fan, knowing every athlete in these races, she is willing to put in the work to get in those races someday. Hard work matters so much, without the work ethic, talent only takes a person so far–not just in athletics, in everything. Katie Lee went home after her race, had lunch, then came back with her whole family to cheer on the MV relay teams and watch more racing! In a sport where it’s possible for an athlete to show up just in time to warm up, complete for a couple minutes (or less!) then leave, coaches and teams and teammates appreciate the people who love their teams and show that caring through their actions.
Complete results have been posted on athletic.net. Mr. Slaney has started to post photos (more to come I am sure!).
Next up: Santa Clara comes to Monta Vista on Thursday, March 23. There will be senior recognition starting at 3:30pm, followed by the meet starting at 4:00pm.
