A Great Day to Compete!
This past Saturday, March 21st, the Monta Vista Track & Field team split up to attend both the 13th annual Firebird Relays Invitational and the ever-so-exciting St. Francis Invitational. We earned many medals and t-shirts and even saw a couple of new school records – it was truly a great day to compete!
Before we get into all of the great news for our squad, I wanted to call attention to something cool about this day. Typically, these meets are on different weekends and do not overlap. The way the calendar feel this year, it just so happened that these two invites ended up on the same day. Now, St. Francis is a huge invite with a lot of excitement around it and some of the best competition that athletes in CCS can get in the first half of the season, but often is not accessible to athletes not near the top of their division. Firebird is also usually a decent-sized invitational with good competition, but more open to athletes at all levels. The way it played out this year was that Firebird became a bit smaller than it usually is, which meant that we were able to crank through the schedule a bit quicker, but it also meant that the vibes were a bit lighter and perhaps more fun. I was hanging out on the infield while the Varsity boys long jump was going on and I swear you would’ve thought all of those boys were on the same team the way they were (very loudly) cheering for each and every jumper! They were getting the slow clap going for pretty much everyone and bursting into “Let’s go!”‘s and jubilation once the feet hit the sand. It was a spectacle and I don’t think it would’ve happened had St. Francis not “stolen” some of the athletes that would have been competing at Firebird if these meets were on different days. So, if you were a bit bummed that we didn’t get to send more kids to St. Francis, don’t be! We all got to experience a cool meet either way!
Firebird Top Honorees
Firebird handed out medals for top 6 in individual events and top 3 for relays. They also do this cool thing where they comprise a “relay” in the events that don’t already have a sanctioned relay (field events, hurdles, and the 3200m) by combining the top 3 athletes’ marks from each school. Our medal winners started on the track with a trio of boys in the Varsity 1600m. Ethan Yang earned 3rd place with Riu Yamada in 5th and Tarun Gandhi in 6th. Mel Zhao and Taylor Orr both earned medals in the F/S girls 1600m as well with 3rd and 4th places finishes, respectively. Our Varsity boys 4x100m relay of Max Shaykin, Jeffrey Choy, Jake Tong, and Jayden Tang earned a close 2nd place finish to get our first relay medal of the day. That was quickly followed up by a 2nd place in the F/S girls DMR from the team of Medha Rustagi, Sarah Kumar, Sophia Li, and Kaitlyn Lum. The Varsity boys DMR of Ethan Yang, Choy, Kento Murase, and Gandhi earned a 3rd place medal. Big shoutout to Murase for jumping in to run the 800m leg of the DMR after Sam Heinonen had a tweak in his leg and couldn’t race! In the Varsity boys 400m, Ivan Shliakhov showed he’s getting back to form with a 4th place finish and his season’s best time. Myra Mishra, Orr, Alex Perrault, and Li teamed up to win the F/S girls 4x800m relay! That was MV’s only relay win on the day! Shaykin earned a 5th place medal in the Varsity boys 100m. This was followed up by a win in the Varsity boys 800m by Yamada – our sole individual win of the day! Constantine Chua ran a huge PR in the 300m hurdles to take 3rd place. The Varsity boys SMR saw Shaykin, Tong, Choy, and Murase grab 3rd place medal. Zhao came back in the 3200m to earn a 2nd place medal for F/S girls which was preceded by Suhani Pahuja’s 3rd place finish for Varsity girls. To end things on the track, the Varsity boys 4x400m relay team of Jonah Chang, Chua, Yamada, and Choy crossed the line in 3rd place, earning the final track medal of the day. In the field Jasmine Zhao got a 5th place finish in the high jump for Varsity girls and Mya Vu earned a 6th place finish in F/S girls, with a new PR! Kingston Jourdan got a 3rd place in the shot put for Varsity boys and Adam Yang earned a 5th place medal in the F/S boys triple jump. For the other “relays” on the day, the F/S boys long jump earned a 3rd place with a team made up of Yang, Duncan Ross, and Oliver Perrault! Big shoutout to Perrault for driving back to the meet to get one jump in to secure the medal for his team (he’s not a jumper, he’s a distance runner)!! A final shoutout to the Varsity boys’ team for ending up 3rd overall out of the 19 schools in attendance!
St. Francis Performances
We sent five athletes over to the St. Francis Invitational and overall, they all have a great day! On the boys’ side, Eddie Fan threw the discus the second furthest he’s ever thrown it to earn 16th place in a tough competition. Ryan Shen was a double event winner with his performances in the triple jump and long jump! Shen furthered his long jump school record with a leap of 23′ 9.5″ and also earned a PR in the triple jump going just under an inch further than his previous best. To put his long jump in perspective, that mark would have him tied for 41st OVERALL right now in the NCAA division 1. For high school, according to athletic.net, he’s sitting at 1st in CCS, 6th in the state of California, and 21st in the nation.
For the ladies, Lelani Laruelle won the high jump and matched her PR of 5′ 8″. It’s worth mentioning that she cleared 5′ 8″ on her first attempt, which I believe is a new achievement for her! Laruelle also placed 3rd in the long jump. The day was highlighted by a pair of throwers who had record-breaking performances: Allie Rummelhoff and Gillie Ross. Ross placed 4th overall in the discus throw with Rummelhoff in 9th place, both respectable performances in a tough competition. However, the big news came in the shot put. Rummelhoff had a big throw of 36′ 10″ to officially break Coach Emma’s school record from 2014 by 1/2 of an inch! That was only to be ultimately followed up by an even bigger throw of 39′ 5″ from Ross to break Rummelhoff’s brand new school record of just about 10 minutes. FANTASTIC job, girls! It’s a super special thing to be coached by a record holder and then end up breaking that record. Ross and Rummelhoff ended up 1st and 2nd overall in the Varsity girls shot put!
23 PRs total!
10 Girls PRs!
- Gillie Ross – Shot Put (new school record!)
- Allie Rummelhoff – Shot Put
- Allie Rummelhoff – Discus Throw
- Caroline Labudde – 100m
- Kaitlyn Lum – 800m
- Taylor Orr – 1600m
- Myra Mishra – 1600m
- Suhani Pahuja – 3200m
- Mya Vu – High Jump
- Tahlia Tashjian – High Jump
13 Boys PRs!
- Ryan Shen – Long Jump (new school record!)
- Ryan Shen – Triple Jump
- Jake Tong – 100m
- Kento Murase – 400m
- Riu Yamada – 800m
- Oliver Perrault – 800m
- Ethan Yang – 1600m
- Riu Yamada – 1600m
- Tarun Gandhi – 1600m
- Sam Heinonen – 1600m
- Aric Obaidur – 1600m
- Constantine Chua – 300m Hurdles
- Kingston Jourdan – Long Jump