The opportunity to run on the storied Crystal Springs cross country course and the California state championship course at Woodward Park is incredible double–and MVXC ran both in the same week! That is a fine, fine week for some lucky cross country runners.
Crystal Preview
Tuesday, October 5, saw MVXC competing on the Crystal Springs course for the first time in two years (other than a bandit effort last Spring). The Crystal Preview is intended as a prep for league championships in four weeks, but this year, the Preview was like a welcome home party.
MV started off with a senior, junior plus freshman combo in the V2 Boys race, and freshmen Tanay Parikh and Ruhaan Shah were the first two boys across the line with 19:48 and 19:56 clockings. The elder statesmen in the race followed, as Ethan Lam, Nitin Kukreja, Amogh Rajagopal and Sean Basu ran in between 20:44 and 22:05. The V2 girls were lead by our basketball stars Jasmine Varma and Sophia Chen who came in side by side with 23:19 marks, while Anika Bhandakar, Karena Lai and Megan Nieh came in together with 23:38-23:39 clockings. That 22 second 1-5 spread was the tightest of any team all day and put a giant smile on Coach Flatow’s face (which is still on his face as he types this post!). Ethan Lu’s 20:06 and Neal Jain’s 20:16 lead the sophomore boy’s effort.
Justin Yu lead the varsity boys with a 16:30 personal record and MV’s fastest time all day. Sophomore Denny Dong was the second MV boy, with Alex Nguyen right with him. Ari Rajaram, Matthew Sun and Andrew Cole came in a clump a half minute later.
For the varsity girls, Nikhita Saldi give MVXC a really low stick in 18:23, the fifth fastest Crystal mark for Monta Vista all-time! Jannah Sheriff’s 19:36 gave MVXC another girl sub-20 for the day, with Ellie Hsu and Vivian Lau at 20:30 and 20:33 gave the team a pair of sub 21s. Sydney Stevens and Agnes Wang came in nearly side by side at 21:10 and 21:11.
The varsity girls efforts gave them a strong fourth place finish, while the varsity boys took home tenth. The V2 boys nailed down a fifth and the sophomore boys a team sixth, with the V2 girls a fifth place of their own.
Personal records were recorded by Insiah Kizilbash, Agnes, Nikhita, Amogh, Ari, Sean, Alex, Ethan and Sotirios Kougiouris.
Complete results are posted, as well as a big file of photos from Malcolm Slaney that are free for personal use.
Clovis Invitational
While there is nothing like Crystal Springs in the hearts of MV runners, Woodward Park is in the next tier of fine California courses. The Clovis Invitational is a huge meet, giving every athlete an opportunity to run on the same course where future Olympians have raced as prep stars. So 18 dedicated MVXC runners got out of bed in the pre-dawn dark to get on a 5am bus ride to Fresno and on opportunity to run on a great course.
The varsity girls recorded a nice 7th place team finish out of 27 teams from across the state in the large school division. The JV girls added a 16th place finish. Nikhita added on to a great week of running with an 11th place finish and a coveted Clovis medal. While the boys did not field a complete team, Soti and Andrew both had PRs along with Nikhita, Sydney, Ellie and Vivian for the girls (six PRs out of nine opportunities for those keeping track!).
Results for all the races are on Finished Results.
Pizza on the way back from a race never gets old, does it?
