Off We Go! Watermelon Run kicks off the 2015 XC Season!

Off and running.

Since time immemorial–or at least the last ten years–the 2.6 mile Watermelon Run has kicked off the Monta Vista Cross-Country season.  So on Thursday, September 3, 90 nervous harriers toed the line in the dust of Stevens Canyon and prepared to see what their summer running had done for them.  It was a great day, with slightly cooler temperatures feeling a lot better than some of the heat we had been dealing with for the past couple of weeks.

The results are in, and the results are spectacular!

Wait a second…do you know where we are going?

Out of 34 athletes who ran Watermelon last year also, 32 of these athletes improved, and 26 had an improvement of a minute or more!  The honor roll of improvements…

1 to 2 minute year to year improvements

Always smile for the camera!  We run best with a song playing in our heads.

2 to 3 minute improvements

Incredible 3 or more minute improvements!

The boys had a great day, with the top five boys recording the second best aggregate time over the last ten years!  The 2015 edition trails only the 2010 team in the record books, by a mere 29 seconds, and was 2:05 faster than last years’ team — a team that finished the year ranked 14th in the Central Coast Section.  Leader Brent Mogensen clocked in with the fourth fastest Watermelon time on record!  Two super freshmen, Andy Fang and Ryan Niu, had times faster than MV Alum and current CalTech frosh runner Rohan Choudhury ran his first time on the course, and Vishal Sodem and Aravind Meyyappan were both within a minute of that mark!  Rohan went on to work hard to improve every year from his first run for Monta Vista, and succeeded; so can this group if they show the same determination.  Combined with a strong showing by our sophomores, and the boys’ season is off to a great start.

Ten Year Watermelon Run Results

Top Five Boys’ Marks

Mrs. Flatow and the ‘official scorer’s table’.

The Monta Vista girls put on their own show, with the third best mark in the last ten years, bested slightly only by the CCS championship and CCS runner up squads of the last two years.  This years’ team was only 22 seconds behind the CCS championship group of 2013!  As with Brent’s mark, Kelly Bishop’s individual time was the fourth fastest in recorded MV history.  Most impressively to your coach, this was the first time in history that the girls had five girls run under 19 minutes for the Watermelon course, a sign of depth (and a lot of hard work).   The freshman group looks very strong.  Recent grad Julia Chang, who is now running for defending NCAA D3 champion Johns Hopkins University, ran a 21:33 during her freshman year; this year, freshmen Melinda Ximen, Serena Geis, Anjali Thontakudi, Sarah Feng, Claire Chang all were under that mark, and reputed ping-pong hustler Anuska Tandon was within a minute.  Julia was an incredibly hard worker for all four years, and demonstrated what is possible when an athlete really wants to achieve something.  As with our boys, the future looks bright for this group!

Ten Year Watermelon Run Results

Top Five Girls’ Marks

After the run and our warm down, the team destroys a table full of watermelon–this year, I believe that 16 watermelon were sent on to a happier place (in runners’ distended stomachs!).  After some team bonding, we head back to school, satisfied with great runs and a great day.

This was a great start, team!  You really look good and this is a great launching point to a strong season.  These times were really good–we did have excellent running conditions, but still, you all had to take advantage of the weather–and you did.  This is a tougher time trial course than most schools use, and you met the challenge!  Keep working hard and who knows what you will achieve!

The question is not how fast you are…the real question is, how fast do you want to be?

COMPLETE RESULTS

Ready for demolition!

This will do, coach!

Discussing the theory of watermelon.

Coach, I ran fast because I was afraid we would run out of Watermelon!

Freshmen wondering…can we do this after EVERY race (please!)?

Get to know your teammates.