Track is the greatest sport, yet sometimes can also be the cruelest and least forgiving sport. Monta Vista tasted a little of both at the 2014 CCS Trials.
Way up on the plus side, Monta Vista had more individuals advance to the CCS finals in years! Emma Seyer lead the charge by qualifying in both the discus and the shot put, with throws of 106’3″ and 34’10”. Emma did not have her best day–she gave her coaches minor heart ‘events’ during her discus qualifying–however that is going to make this Friday’s performances even more dramatic! Accompanying Emma to CCS finals this Friday will be Bridget Gottlieb and Kelly Bishop, who both scored big PRs in the 3200m to advance (10:56.86 and 11:08.02). Bridget’s mark lowered the all-time Monta Vista record in the 3200m for the THIRD time this season!–Bridget had earlier broken the record while racing in the Azusa Meet of Champions, Jenny Xu broke that record last week, and Bridget pushed the record down even further. Bridget and Jenny are the only MV girls–so far–to every break 11 minutes for the 3200m!
While the 3200m was the source of joy, the 3200m was also the source of some heartbreak, as MV had the 13th finisher in both boys and girls races–and 12 runners move on. Jenny Xu was ill and despite fighting valiantly could not finish in the top 12; her time from the week before would have easily allowed her to move on. Rohan Choudhury got caught in a slower, tactical heat and ended up just missing the last spot–cruelly, Rohan missed the 12th and final spot by only 0.03 seconds! Just like Jenny, his time from last week would have moved him on. Maddie Yip was also having a bit of reaction from an inoculation she took earlier in the week and unfortunately did not have her best race. So while we are very pleased and proud to have Bridget and Kelly moving on, we also honor our athletes who just missed! These are all great athletes who really worked hard, could have qualified for finals, and just had issues on the wrong day.
Other athletes from the largest contingent of CCS competitors MV has had in years also did well. Carnegie-Mellon bound Kiersten Chuc finished 26th in CCS with a discus toss of 96’05”, about 8′ off her season best. The CMU coaches are excited to have K-Chuc on the way to Pittsburgh and we are looking forward to following her collegiate career! Monta Vista qualified more high jumpers in one CCS than any time in recent memory, however none were able to reach the daunting opening heights. Junior Sanjna Bharadwaj and sophomore James Migdal will both benefit from this experience and will be back next year, while first-year competitor Neehar Kondapeneni (UC San Diego) seems to be hooked on the sport and may continue in college. Donald Swen finished a fine MV hurdling career with a 43.76 in the 300h. MV had boys teams in both the 4×100 (Sai Ranganathan, Albert Han, Roch Ambati and Chatty Adiga) and 4×400 relays; the 4×400 team of junior Chatty Adiga, seniors John Hsiao (St. Johns University) and Anand Rao (UC Santa Cruz), and junior Rochish Ambati had a season best 3:31.09, the best time MV has had in two years.
Complete results are available at Hank Lawson’s web site.
Come see Emma, Bridget and Kelly compete this Friday! Emma starts throwing at SJCC at 4:05, Bridget and Kelly run under the lights at 8:05. The complete schedule is available at the CCS web site.
Andy’s father, Mr. Ma, posted some photos from early in the meet on dropbox.
