We don’t practice to practice…we practice to compete! Practice is great, however competition helps bring out something new. Competitors are a gift to help us find something that we did not know we had inside us; win or lose, I know that I can’t run as fast or as far during a workout as I can when I have a bib pinned to my singlet. It’s important to put ourselves out there and take some risks and be measured, not only against others but also against what we have accomplished in the past.
So, off we go with a season of competition. The Monta Vista Track & Field team got the 2018 season underway while hosting the 2nd Annual Rustbuster Invitational on Saturday, March 3.
The meet got rolling under threatening clouds and a squall of rain for the first event, the high hurdles. After the hurdlers got things started–including Zoe Wang taking our first medal of the season, setting a new meet record with 18.05 for first place in the Frosh-Soph 100m hurdles, and Sean Chen and Conner Hsu getting our boys started with 5th and 6th place medals in the 65m hurdles–the rain stopped, the sun came out and rain jackets came off for some seriously fun racing.
The distance runners looked sharp in the 1600m races, as Anjali Thontakudi, Sanjana Borle, Jeffrey Xu and Brian Huang all had PRs to open the season, Sarah Feng took third place looking very strong, and Jason Tsujimoto got under 5 in his first try on the track. Monta Vista sprinters look to take a big step forward in 2018, as Brooke Young, Evelyn How and Bianca Young gave our girls three of the six podium spots in the varsity girls’ 100m race. Freshman Melanie Ooi also medaled for Monta Vista.
In the 400m races (a favorite distance of the coaches), Monta Vista showed across the board strength. Eliot Lubomirsky made a statement about his senior season goals as he set a new meet record 52.61 while winning the varsity boy’s 400m. Devin Periera medalled for the varsity girls, Sai Vishal Koppuru did the same for the frosh-soph boys, while Vivian Cheng and Ananya Rajagopal both podiumed for the frosh-soph girls, giving Monta Vista top placers in every division of the 400m at Rustbuster.
Richard Dowd started his season with a 300m hurdle medal, less than 2 seconds off his PR and a solid start to 2018. Sean added his second hurdling medal in the frosh-soph division, and Zoe recorded her second meet record and stood atop the podium once more in the low hurdles.
The rarely run Swedish relay (100-200-300-400) provided to be a hit with the crowd, as kids trying to figure out what was going on around the track ran yelling for their teammates from side to side. As the weather cooled off and got rainy once more, Triya Roy just missed a PR while taking second in the 3200 and Lauren Ling took a fourth with an impressive debut at the distance. Aravind Meyyappan medalled for the varsity boys and recorded a season opening PR, and Rohun Agrawal also brought home hardware in the frosh-soph race.
Meanwhile in the field events, freshman Vibha Iyengar competed in a rarely seen combination of events, competing in the triple jump while also throwing both shot and discus. Vibha also is a distance runner, as a part of the cross country team last fall. Vibha brought home a medal in the discus while scoring points in all three events–and scoring points with her coaches, who applaud her bold approach trying new things, to learning many skills, working to help her team, and having an unfailingly positive attitude as she challenges herself. Monta Vista’s triple jumpers showed up all over the girls’ medal stand, with Reema Apte and Cynthia Gong both on the podium for the varsity girls and Jasmine Lee taking second in the frosh-soph division. Reema added a long jump medal, as did Albert Xu for the frosh-soph boys. Albert medalled in the high jump as well. Sophomore Catherine Cole opened her season with a varsity girls’ medal, only 3″ off her personal best from her freshman year.
In the 4×400, the 2018 team was going to find it difficult to match the meet-sweep of all divisions last year. Both boys teams ended up with hard-fought podium finishes. The girls teams both took home first place team medals as we wrapped up the meet in sunshine once more; the varsity girls team of Evelyn, Brooke, Bianca and Reema scored an impressive victory by more than 20 seconds as they romped home in 4:17 and a new meet record.
Overall, visiting Evergreen Valley won the frosh-soph divisions while Menlo-Atherton ruled both boys’ and girls’ varsity teams.
The Rustbuster is intended to be what it is named; a season opening competition to knock off the rust, start developing some mental racing callouses, and see where we are as we get the season rolling. Mission accomplished!
Thank you to all the volunteers that help make Rustbuster, and all high school track meets, possible. At the top of the list is Ceci Imamura, who recruited and organized all the volunteers in a way that coach never could. In addition to being Jason and Kyle’s mom, she is a bit of a mom to everyone on our team. Thank you to all the parent volunteers who graciously contributed their time to learn and help out in many ways on the track. Thank you to Octagon for graciously providing a group of enthusiastic volunteers, and a special thanks to Mr. Payne and the other teachers who came and judged the afternoon sessions of the discus. Katherine Ma’s father was out taking some great photos of our team once again the entire day. Hank Lawson was our timer and posted the results, and Jim Springer was our USATF certified starter.
Complete results are posted and Mr. Ma’s photos are available for viewing, downloading (and sending to grandparents!).
We would also like to thank the Monta Vista Athletic Boosters for all their support, and for Monta Vista cheer for running the concession stand. Monta Vista track parents–if you have not yet joined the Monta Vista athletic boosters, please hit this link and join right now! If you were inspired by our team and our kids, please join and donate now. MVAB is a great organization, and also your support helps tell your coaches that you appreciate what they are doing. All the money goes to the team and athletes, and your coaches really notice when you contribute. We can’t continue to provide this level of team without your support.
