Records Fall, Tickets Booked
Monta Vista Track & Field wrapped up its CCS competition this past weekend, where 7 athletes competed at CCS Finals! In this article I will cover both the CCS Trials recap as well as the historic performances at Finals.
TLDR;
- Ryan Shen, Lelani Laruelle, and Allie Rummelhoff have all booked their tickets to the CIF State Finals next weekend in Clovis, CA!!
- Ryan won the long jump and placed 2nd in both the high and triple jumps
- Lelani placed 2nd in the high jump
- Allie won the shot put!!
- The boys 4x800m relay set a new school record at CCS Finals
- We had 10 total athletes compete in CCS Trials and Finals combined
CCS Trials
We had 10 athletes competing at the CCS Trials on May 18th at Gilroy High School. Constantine Chua ran the 300m hurdles and finished 20th overall with a time of 42.48. He was the 3rd best sophomore at the event, and 6th out of all non-seniors! Kingston Jourdan placed 25th in the shot put with a throw of 42′ 8.5″ to end a really great final season of high school track! Eddie Fan competed in the discus, where he threw 130′ which was enough for 27th place in a stacked CCS field. The boys 4×800 of Ethan Yang, Tarun Gandhi, Sam Heinonen, and Riu Yamada ran the top, non-automatic qualifying time to make it to finals. Ryan Shen qualified for finals in all 3 jumps. Lelani Laruelle had finals qualifying marks in both the high jump and long jump, but ended up scratching the long jump to focus on high. Zoe Laruelle qualified for finals in the triple jump, but wound up scratching to attend the Monta Vista prom. Allie Rummelhoff qualified for finals in the shot put and was bumped up to a qualifying spot in the triple jump, but decided to just stick with the shot in finals. Gillie Ross also qualified for shot put finals.
Making it to the Central Coast Section Trials meet is an accomplishment in itself. SCVAL is one of the toughest leagues within CCS, so to make it out of there is a big deal! Everyone that was able to make the trip down to Gilroy to compete should be proud – your coaches are quite proud of you all!
CCS Finals
Of the 7 athletes competing in CCS Finals, we had 2 champions, 3 third place finishes, and 2 school records! The boys 4x800m relay team of Yang, Gandhi, Heinonen, and Yamada put in a valiant effort in a truly historic field of relay teams. The top 5 ran new CCS meet records and the last podium spot ran a time which equated to a 1:57.8 average – if you don’t know, that’s incredibly fast. Our boys ran a new PR of 8:13.93 (a 2:03.5 average) which is a new school record! L. Laruelle did what she needed to do to secure a top 3 spot and jetted out of there to make it to prom. She hit a jump of 5′ 4″ to earn 2nd place. Shen had a great day, scoring 25 points on his own which was good enough for 10th place out of all 49 schools. He placed 2nd in the high jump with 6′ 2″ and another 2nd place in the triple jump with a new school record of 47′ 0.5″! Shen was the long jump champion after leaping 23′ 10″ on his second and final attempt. A big highlight of the day was Rummelhoff in the shot put. On her very first throw of the day, she set the bar at 37′ 10.5″ and nobody had an answer for her! This is her first CCS title and first trip to state, and we certainly don’t believe it will be her last.
Congratulations to all CCS athletes!!
Next Up…
The CIF State Track & Field Championships will take place on Friday and Saturday, May 29th and 30th at Buchanan High School in Clovis, CA. Ryan Shen, Lelani Laruelle, and Allie Rummelhoff will be competing in their respective events and you can find more info on the meet here: https://www.cifstate.org/sports/track_and_field/tf_champs
Before that, however, we will be hosting our annual Track & Field Team Banquet at the Cupertino Quinlan Community Center on Wednesday, May 27th at 6:00pm. Please come and celebrate a wonderful season and see your team one last time before school lets out. See you there!
3 PRs in Total!
- Ryan Shen – triple jump (new school record!)
- Ethan Yang, Tarun Gandhi, Sam Heinonen, Riu Yamada – boys 4×800 (2x, trials and finals)