Four CCS Championship medals is a proud result for any team. But for a single athlete? Four medals at CCS is remarkable!
On the weekend before the Central Coast Section (CCS) championships, weather started moving into the Bay Area. Coach Flatow never even checks his weather apps in California from May through September, so when he got a text from Coach John saying ‘what’s up with rain this week?’ he thought this was a joke or a metaphorical puzzle he didn’t understand. But sure enough, weather was moving in and the week before Sections was more like the weather we would expect before RustBuster: Cold, breezy, and a little damp. The 4×100 team would put tape on the track to mark their zones, and watch the tape blow away and roll down the track. Coaches and athletes looked at each other in disbelief and asked themselves, “what is going on?”
However, after a very rainy Thursday, Friday May 17th dawned sunny and bright. Nature seemed to plan the week as a test of faith. Monta Vista rolled into Gilroy enjoying perfect track weather, warm enough for sprinters but not too hot for distance athletes. The team got settled in and prepared for track!
As usual for this year’s squad, the girls’ 4×100 team was ready to set the tone for the day in our first event. Senior (and University of San Francisco-bound) Evelyn How got out fast and from lane eight Monta Vista got solid early position. Three smooth handoffs later, the team of Evelyn, Brooke Young, Vivian Cheng and Bianca Young had put up their fastest time of the season on the biggest stage, a 49.09 mark that placed the team on the podium in 6th place–back to back podium finishes for the Monta Vista 4×100 team!
An hour later, Monta Vista was on the track again. Brooke and Bianca toed the line in the 100m finals, giving Monta Vista 25% of the starting athletes in the 100m section championship. To give some perspective on that feat–there are more than 150 schools in the section. There are more than 1,400 girls that ran the 100m in the section during this season. And at the end, out of eight girls still competing from 1,400-plus that started the season, Monta Vista had two!
With her trademark lightning start, Evelyn got out in good position with Brooke right beside her. Both had strong races and put up their season bests when it counted most. Evelyn’s 12.37 and Brooke’s 12.39 marks earned them both their second podium spots and second medals of the day, taking 5th and 6th place. But their coaches were even more proud of their sportsmanship; at the finish line, the winner Jessica Eagle caught a spike and went down hard. While other finishers had hands on their knees, and before the results were out, Brooke and Evelyn immediately ran over to Jessica to check on her, make sure she was OK and offer any comfort they could. Girls, you are great athletes, and you are even better people, showing such respect and caring for your competitor. (In this video about the championship meet, about 40 seconds in you can see the finish, what happens to Jessica and the aftermath. This is a proud moment for Monta Vista coaches and we are not ashamed to say we both tear up every time we play this clip.) These are great kids.
Brooke had very little time to enjoy her second trip to the podium, as the 200m start was contested less than 45 minutes later. Brooke stayed on a roll and with a strong start ran a well paced race to put up a 25.66, a mark that placed her third in the 200m. Third place earned Brooke a return to the California State Meet next week!
Sylvana Northrop followed Brooke on the track in the 3200m finals. In lovely, cool evening conditions for a distance runner, Sylvana ran a smooth and well-paced race to a personal record of 11:14 and a 9th place finish. Sylvana’s mark gives Monta Vista five of the top 20 3200m times in all of SCVAL among returning runners–a good start for next year’s distance team!
Finally, the 4×400 teams took to the track for some of the most exciting races in any meet. The 4×400 is the traditional end of a track meet, and in this case also marks the end of the 2019 CCS season. As spectators lined the track, Monta Vista’s girls team of Brooke, Bianca, Evelyn and senior Reema Apte came to the starting line. This group set a new Monta Vista all-time record last year. The same four girls had made the CCS finals in 2018, finishing in 7th place, only one spot off the podium. After vowing to be back, and after a year of hard work, the girls achieved their goal. In their last race together before Evelyn and Reema graduate, the girls ran a 4:05.10 mark, good for 6th place and a medal together. In 2012, Amy Hastings finished in 4th place in the US Marathon Trials to miss making the Olympic team by one spot; after making the US Olympic marathon team in 2016, Amy (now Amy Cragg) proudly said, “I worked four years to move up one spot”. Reema, Evelyn, Brooke and Bianca displayed the same kind of grit as they worked hard all year to move up one spot at CCS finals and earn a place on the podium.
But this was not the end of our night! The Monta Vista boys had a spot in the very last race of the meet. Vishal Koppuru, senior Derek Zheng, Andrew Richardson, and Arnav Raut had set a season best the week before to make the finals, and tonight they ran a solid 3:30.67 for eighth place. The eighth place finish does not capture their journey; two weeks ago they were an underdog to even make the CCS meet, much less the finals, after they were placed in the second heat of the SCVAL qualifying meet. From the second heat of the SCVAL meet to the final race of the CCS season, these four boys showed incredible heart. Vishal, Andrew and Arnav are all sophomores–Monta Vista is the only team in the finals to have more than one sophomore, and only three other teams had a single sophomore–so the next two years look very very bright for the Monta Vista boys’ 4x400m team. There will be a lot of boys wanting to fill Derek’s spot on the relay team after he leaves for Harvard! This is a good core group that wants more in the future.
Brooke’s four medals are the most ever won by a Monta Vista girl at the CCS championships; only Jazzlyn Shearer of Silver Creek (100m, 100mH, LJ, TJ) and Abby Monti of Los Gatos (400m, 300mH, 4×100, 4×400) pulled off the feat this year. Brooke heads off to State next week to continue her season in the 200m.
The Monta Vista girls tallied 19 points, good for a solid 13th place finish in the team standings. Seniors Evelyn How, Reema Apte and Derek Zheng will graduate with smiles on their faces and appreciation from team and coaches for wonderful high school track careers, while Bianca, Brooke, Sylvana, Vivian, Vishal, Andrew and Arnav look to return to CCS finals next year–along with a big group of Monta Vista track athletes that also have the same goal!
Complete results are posted, and Robert Ma has photos too.
See you all at the banquet on Tuesday! We are excited to celebrate all the hard work you put into yourselves and the team.
