At 9am on a beautiful Saturday morning, Emilio Torres-Gonzalez toed the line for the Frosh-Soph 3200M run at the Willow Glen Classic Invitational, the starter raised the gun and pulled the trigger, and the Monta Vista 2012 track & field season got underway!
More than 100 Monta Vista athletes have joined the track team this year, and the 40+ athletes who came to the WG invite represented us well. Many personal records were posted (among many others, Guhan Venkataraman scored two PRs in the 100M and 200M, Salvador Torres-Gonzalez had a PR of more than 10 seconds in the 1600, and Pearl Law–who had been running this race in her head for 10 months–destroyed her 6 minute target with a 5:47 in the Varsity 1600M).
MV brought home several individual medals. Kevin Bishop won the Varsity boys’ 800M race, Jenny Xu kept the momentum from a great cross-country season with a 2nd place finish in the Varsity girls’ 1600M, and Rohan Choudhury took home a 4th place medal in the Frosh-Soph 800M. Perhaps the most impressive medal was earned by freshman Hannah Ho in the Varsity girls high jump; Hannah cleared every height up to 4′ 10″ without a single miss on her way to a 3rd place finish.
The last race of the day was the varsity boys’ 4×400 relay. With a huge turnout for the meet, the last race did not start until well after sunset. The race was one of the most memorable in any of the coaches’ memories, as most of the race was run in darkness with the silhouettes of the runners barely detectable. The only light cast a dim glow over the exchange zone, and the outgoing runners, officials and coaches would peer into the dark and try to figure out who was leading. The incoming runners would come flying out the darkness, their teammates would rapidly adjust and grab at the batons and disappear back into the night. It’s an experience that your coaches will not forget soon, and we think that everyone who was there will have fantastic memories of that race–and Arvind Rao, Shanmukha Srinivas, Bumpei Maeda and Kevin Bishop will have a 2nd place medal to remind them of that fantastic race.
It was one of those fabulous days that can help anyone grow to love track & field!
Complete results from the Willow Glen invitational are at:
http://www.dyestatcal.com/ATHLETICS/TRACK/2012/wg_res.htm
Photographer Ezra Gordon (a huge friend of Monta Vista) was able to drop by for a few hours during the middle of the track meet; a few of his photos are attached and you can look for the rest of his shots shortly. He’s a great photographer and we are always lucky to have him at our events!
A FEW MEET PHOTOS
Sayali Khare is focused in the Triple Jump
Nima Kiyarash debuts in the 100M
Hannah Ho displays great form in the Varsity girls’ high jump
Arvind Rao and Bumpei Maeda keep pushing past the halfway point of the 800M
Kevin Bishop wins the Varsity boys’ 800M in a photo finish
No one gives more than Bumpei at the end of a race!