The MVTF16 league season got started with our dual meet at Saratoga on March 10. While the weather threatened, and we did see some rain, the team competed hard and earned a lot of success!
Dual meets kick off with 4x100m relays and while we had some challenges with the hand-offs, all of our pristine gold batons made it around the track safely–and we all looked back and saw lots of room for improvement. These teams have a lot of potential! The relays were followed by the 1600m races, and Monta Vista distance definitely has it going on! Kelly Bishop, Namrata Subramanian and Paru Meyyappan swept the varsity girls’ 1600m, Claire Chang and Sanjana Borle went 1-2 in the JV girls’ division, Brent Mogensen and Andy Ma went 1-3 for the varsity boys while Andy Fang, Jeffrey Xu and Kingsley Wang swept for the Frosh-Soph boys. Monta Vista scored 32 out of a possible 36 points; that is getting it done!
The hurdlers successfully followed with Alice Zheng and Lucas Chang scoring varsity points. Rookie Jessica Ji and Sabrina Hung went 1-2 for the JV girls, and the frosh-soph boys recorded another Monta Vista sweep by frosh Derek Zhang, Richard Dowd and another frosh Shakthi Elangovan! MV hurdlers have a great tradition, lead by long-time coach Ray Cornell, and they have shown that the 2016 edition will be strong as always. Coach Ray is one of the best hurdle coaches in a hundred miles, and his team shows this every year.
The 400m event has been a tough one for Monta Vista, but our younger athletes show that we might have developing strength. Eliot Lubomirsky recorded a 56.12 to win the frosh-soph 4oom, while freshmen Alisha Gao and Victoria Tung went 1-3 for the JV girls! Eliot’s time was only .2 seconds off his PR, which will be going down before long. The 100m saw MV rack up 18 points, lead by Anella Palacpac’s second place in varsity and Evelyn How and Morris Chaing’s wins in the JV and FS divisions!
The 800m saw Kelly and Paru go 1-2, while Vamsee Vemulapalli left the tennis courts to take a strong second place for the varsity boys! Anjali Thontakudi took second with Claire scoring again, and the frosh-soph boys had another epic race with Andy Fang, Justin Lin and newcomer Peter Heydinger right off the wrestling mats sweeping for MV.
Our hurdlers came out strong again in the 300m, with Elizabeth Ngo, Matt Ho, Sabrina, Pallavi Komma, Richard, and Jeremy Tien all scoring! I think Pallavi was just happy to not be rained out! In the 200, Anella scored again and Adam Jancis chipped in with a second place finish, while Alisha and Lauren Ling went 1-2 for the JV girls and Morris backed up his 100m performance with another win.
The distance runners showed their stuff once again by winning all four divisions of the longest event, the 3200m! Maddy Yip, Akshara Majjiga, Isabelle Ju and Salma Sheriff went 1-2-3-4 for the varsity girls, Bennett Zhang ran a 10:02 PR to win the varsity boys race, freshmen Sarah Feng and Melinda Ximen went 1-2 for the JVs and Derek Lee and Atharva Dixit went 1-2 in frosh-soph. The 1600m relay races were strong, as MV took three of the four races! The MV varsity and frosh-soph boys ended up battling each other, and while the varsity held off the younger team, the frosh-soph boys are only seven seconds off the league record that MV set last year!
Monta Vista showed more strength in the field events than we have had in years. For the varsity girls, Aarohi Palkar brought home eight points with a win in the shot and a second place in the discus, and Mahima Shanware won the high jump with a 4’10” PR (impressive to PR in the high jump on a rainy afternoon in the first meet of the season). The varsity boys field eventers where lead by James Migdal’s win in the high jump, while Namir Hassan placed in both shot and disc. Ajay Mercia scored a PR along with Aarohi’s double PR (how does a thrower do that in the rain?). Fresh out of hoops, Ryan Lee took the high jump for the frosh-soph boys, while incredibly Derek, Shakthi and Manu Kondapaneni swept the triple. Akshay Gopalakrishnan added a second place in LJ. The JV girls received 18 points of 18 possible in shot and discus thanks to Annabel Li, Rupali Sujan and Rucha Bhise, while Jessica Ji and Jasmine Tsai went 1-2 in the high jump. Monta Vista had another sweep in the triple thanks to Jessica, Reema Apte and Cynthia Gong, and Jessica also won the long jump. Jessica Ji won four events for Monta Vista on the day, a truly memorable feat!
Our varsity teams both went down with hard fought losses, while the frosh-soph boys nailed down a 78-48 win and the JV girls had a dominating 99-27 victory!
Complete results are available here, and you can track individual season performances on athletic.net. We will have more photos posted soon (watch for an announcement).
Everyone showed great spirit in the threatening weather, keeping positive attitudes and cheering each other on.
Thursday was a terrific start to the season! Next up is the De Anza Invitational on Saturday, March 19. We hope to see you there!
