Watermelon Madness

The final day of August, 2016, saw Monta Vista run the 11th consecutive recorded Watermelon Run…one of the key dates of our early season training and the first time what MVXC goes out at something that feels  like race pace!

This season’s Watermelon results were historic for the boys, as the top five boys’ times were the fastest in all of recorded history on this time trial course.  The boys’ team time of 78:15 bested the previous record from 2010 by three seconds; 2010 was also the last time that the Monta Vista boys, lead by Kevin Bishop, won a De Anza League Championship!

The girls team is going to be just fine.  We have a couple girls getting back to consistent training after some setbacks and a little illness…but we are looking really, really deep.  We have work to do, but by the end of the season, this team is going to match up well with the teams that went to the State championship for the last three years in a row!

The last results since 2006 for the top five runners are shown below.  It’s worth noting that the fifth boy in 2016 is our fastest #5 ever; that position is so key for good performance in championships!  And take a look at what has happened with the girls’ team since 2010…it takes a time three minutes faster to make the varsity team!  That’s pretty incredible; this is a really good team, where we push and pull each other to achieve new heights.

MVXC WATERMELON RESULTS 2006-2016

MVXC considers improvement to be the most valuable metric for our team; we want to see everyone dedicated to continuous, consistent work.  Karthik Guruvayurappan grabbed top honors at the Watermelon run, slicing three minutes and thirty seconds off his time as a freshman!  Heewon Chung was not far behind with a three minute improvement, while the girls’ improvements were lead by two returning varsity runners–Sarah Feng (who also was the fastest girl on the day) and Claire Chang.  When you are already running varsity, it takes a lot to knock that much time off your marks, and Sarah and Claire deserve a lot of credit for their effort and work ethic over the last twelve months.

YEAR TO YEAR INDIVIDUAL IMPROVEMENTS

I don’t want to end the review without mentioning our freshmen…for the second straight year, four freshmen boys were in the top 20–we have a lot of young talent joining our squad.  And freshman Triya Roy had a solid run to finish third, building on what she has been showing at practice.

And afterwards…the team demolished a solid 17 watermelons!

MVXC is off to a great start.  Our first race, next Saturday at the Ed Sias Invitational, is going to be exciting.  See you on the trails!

2016 WATERMELON COMPLETE RESULTS