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!
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
| Daniel Lin |
| Namrata Subramanian |
| Mizuki Kadowaki |
| Brent Mogensen |
| Akshara Majjiga |
| Isabelle Ju |
| Spencer Zou |
| Paru Meyyappan |
| Anindit Gopalakrishnan |
2 to 3 minute improvements
| Ryan Loke |
| Andrew Ma |
| Jae Youn Lee |
| Matthew Chen |
| Scott Gregory |
| Jason Tsujimoto |
| Lucas Tao |
| Bennett Zhang |
| Rahul Uppuluri |
Incredible 3 or more minute improvements!
| Edwin Peng |
| Aidan Gottlieb |
| Sabrina Hung |
| Nupoor Gandhi |
| Angelo Nguyen |
| Forest Yang |
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
| 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | |
| 1 | 15:04 | 14:43 | 15:27 | 15:48 | 15:48 | 14:40 | 14:58 | 15:35 | 15:35 | 15:17 |
| 2 | 15:21 | 16:14 | 16:05 | 16:07 | 15:48 | 15:10 | 15:54 | 17:08 | 15:37 | 15:36 |
| 3 | 15:42 | 16:26 | 16:07 | 16:21 | 15:49 | 15:41 | 16:05 | 17:11 | 16:08 | 16:15 |
| 4 | 16:19 | 16:32 | 16:14 | 16:25 | 16:08 | 16:14 | 16:28 | 17:28 | 16:08 | 16:24 |
| 5 | 16:23 | 16:59 | 16:20 | 16:27 | 16:09 | 16:33 | 16:36 | 17:32 | 16:14 | 16:34 |
| Total | 78:49 | 80:54 | 80:13 | 81:08 | 79:42 | 78:18 | 80:00 | 84:54 | 79:42 | 80:06 |
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
| 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | |
| 1 | 17:35 | 17:08 | 17:19 | 17:58 | 18:11 | 20:33 | 20:16 | 17:53 | 16:38 | 17:56 |
| 2 | 18:17 | 17:40 | 17:43 | 18:41 | 19:47 | 21:48 | 20:41 | 21:07 | 20:44 | 18:22 |
| 3 | 18:21 | 18:12 | 18:22 | 19:20 | 20:28 | 22:06 | 21:07 | 21:21 | 20:46 | 19:36 |
| 4 | 18:33 | 18:15 | 18:28 | 19:46 | 20:30 | 22:15 | 21:26 | 21:34 | 20:54 | 20:02 |
| 5 | 18:50 | 19:10 | 19:22 | 19:59 | 21:22 | 22:43 | 21:27 | 21:36 | 20:55 | 20:18 |
| Total | 91:36 | 90:25 | 91:14 | 95:44 | 100:18 | 109:25 | 104:57 | 103:31 | 100:57 | 96:14 |
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
| Overall | Gender | Time | Name | Class |
| 1 | 1 | 15:04 | Brent Mogensen | Sr |
| 2 | 2 | 15:21 | Bennett Zhang | Jr |
| 3 | 3 | 15:42 | Andrew Ma | Jr |
| 4 | 4 | 16:19 | Justin Lin | So |
| 5 | 5 | 16:23 | Vamsee Vemulapalli | Sr |
| 6 | 6 | 16:41 | Jeffrey Xu | So |
| 7 | 7 | 16:44 | Andy Fang | Fr |
| 8 | 8 | 16:54 | Ryan Niu | Fr |
| 9 | 9 | 17:16 | Kingsley Wang | So |
| 10 | 1 | 17:35 | Kelly Bishop | Jr |
| 11 | 10 | 17:37 | Anindit Gopalakrishnan | Sr |
| 12 | 11 | 17:39 | Vishal Sodem | Fr |
| 13 | 12 | 17:40 | Scott Gregory | Jr |
| 14 | 13 | 17:45 | Jason Tsujimoto | So |
| 15 | 14 | 17:46 | Lucas Tao | Sr |
| 16 | 15 | 17:48 | Sam Brasesco | Jr |
| 17 | 16 | 17:55 | Eliot Lubomirsky | So |
| 18 | 17 | 17:56 | Aravind Meyyappan | Fr |
| 19 | 18 | 18:01 | Ryan Loke | So |
| 20 | 2 | 18:17 | Madeleine Yip | Sr |
| 21 | 3 | 18:21 | Namrata Subramanian | Sr |
| 22 | 19 | 18:30 | Brighton Balfrey | Jr |
| 23 | 4 | 18:33 | Anna Hsiao | Sr |
| 24 | 20 | 18:44 | Daniel Lin | So |
| 25 | 5 | 18:50 | Paru Meyyappan | Jr |
| 26 | 21 | 18:51 | Richard Dowd | So |
| 27 | 22 | 18:52 | Atharva Dixit | So |
| 28 | 23 | 18:59 | Darren Yang | Fr |
| 29 | 24 | 19:17 | Matthew Chen | Sr |
| 30 | 25 | 19:23 | Pierce Ngo | Sr |
| 31 | 6 | 19:27 | Isabelle Ju | Sr |
| 32 | 26 | 19:31 | Max Chen | Jr |
| 33 | 27 | 19:37 | Jatin Goyal | Jr |
| 34 | 7 | 19:38 | Akshara Majjiga | So |
| 35 | 8 | 19:42 | Salma Sheriff | Jr |
| 36 | 9 | 19:46 | Claire Chang | Fr |
| 37 | 28 | 19:47 | Rahul Uppuluri | Jr |
| 38 | 29 | 19:51 | Ethan Chen | Fr |
| 39 | 30 | 20:08 | Spencer Zou | So |
| 40 | 31 | 20:12 | Forest Yang | So |
| 41 | 10 | 20:13 | Mizuki Kadowaki | So |
| 42 | 11 | 20:14 | Sarah Feng | Fr |
| 43 | 32 | 20:16 | Edwin Peng | So |
| 44 | 33 | 20:34 | Eric Wang | Fr |
| 45 | 34 | 20:45 | Eliot Hsu | Sr |
| 46 | 12 | 20:48 | Anjali Thontakudi | Fr |
| 47 | 13 | 20:57 | Valerie Lo | Sr |
| 48 | 35 | 20:59 | Jimmy Li | Sr |
| 49 | 36 | 21:00 | Victor Ho | So |
| 50 | 37 | 21:10 | Timothy Wu | Fr |
| 51 | 38 | 21:11 | Karthik Guruvayurappan | Fr |
| 52 | 39 | 21:12 | Ethan Lin | So |
| 53 | 40 | 21:14 | Ryan Miranda | So |
| 54 | 14 | 21:25 | Serena Geis | Fr |
| 55 | 15 | 21:28 | Megan Wang | So |
| 56 | 16 | 21:30 | Sabrina Hung | So |
| 57 | 17 | 21:32 | Melinda Ximen | Fr |
| 58 | 41 | 21:42 | Ethan Guo | Fr |
| 59 | 42 | 21:47 | Angelo Nguyen | Jr |
| 60 | 43 | 21:54 | Max Mracek | Fr |
| 61 | 44 | 21:57 | Xin Chen | Fr |
| 62 | 45 | 21:58 | Aidan Gottlieb | Jr |
| 63 | 46 | 22:09 | Bruce Hsieh | Sr |
| 64 | 47 | 22:10 | Alan Hsieh | Sr |
| 65 | 18 | 22:18 | Anuska Tandon | Fr |
| 66 | 48 | 22:24 | Akhil Parvathaneni | Fr |
| 67 | 49 | 22:28 | Colin Yang | So |
| 68 | 19 | 22:55 | Jae Youn Lee | Jr |
| 69 | 50 | 23:00 | Matthew Gong | So |
| 70 | 51 | 23:02 | Connor Sullivan | Sr |
| 71 | 52 | 23:12 | Kendall Lin | Sr |
| 72 | 53 | 23:15 | Heewon Chung | Fr |
| 73 | 54 | 23:23 | David Deng | Sr |
| 74 | 20 | 23:28 | Priscilla Law | Sr |
| 75 | 55 | 23:30 | Winston Lai | Sr |
| 76 | 21 | 23:53 | Michelle Wang | Sr |
| 77 | 22 | 24:16 | Madeleine Yung | Fr |
| 78 | 23 | 24:22 | Ruth Feng | Fr |
| 79 | 24 | 24:25 | Bhavna Sud | So |
| 80 | 25 | 24:36 | Rachel Lee | So |
| 81 | 56 | 24:39 | William Zhang | Fr |
| 82 | 26 | 24:53 | Sidney Ty | Jr |
| 83 | 27 | 25:45 | Yeeling Tse | Sr |
| 84 | 28 | 26:21 | Alison Wu | Fr |
| 85 | 29 | 26:23 | Helen Jiang | So |
| 86 | 30 | 26:24 | Nupoor Gandhi | Sr |
| 87 | 31 | 26:52 | Meghal Gupta | Sr |
| 88 | 57 | 29:15 | Sherwin Zhang | Fr |
| 89 | 32 | 30:05 | Isabella Chang | So |
| 90 | 58 | 30:30 | David Trinh | Fr |
