Images Courtesy of John Hale
On Friday, the track team wrapped up an outstanding season at the CCS Top 8 Invitational, breaking school records and running national ranking times. The meet boasted the best of the Central Coast Section (CCS) in a variety of events as a prelude to the CCS Championships next month.
Sophomore Kei’Niyah Talton placed in the 100 and 200-meter races, taking fourth and sixth place respectively. In the 800, senior and cross-country star Tatum Olesen took second place, trailing just 0.01 seconds behind her competition. She ran a season-best of 4:48—a time which puts her ranked 6th in the state and 24th in the country. Also in the 800 was senior Annie Pflaum, who finished the race in eighth.
Girls varsity did not stop there as junior Sara Nordlund leaped over the hurdles in the 100-meter race with speed, securing a spot in fifth place. Nordlund said, “The CCS top eight meet is the closest competition to the actual championship meets, so it gives a good trailer for how that’s going to go.”
Nordlund continued, “Even though our relay didn’t go exactly how we wanted it to, we now know what we need to work on and perfect for next time.”
Nordlund, Talton, and seniors Jolene Chu and Epiphany Bass worked together to take fifteenth place in the 4×100 relay. In the 4×800 relay, sophomore Mia Sanchez, senior Sofia Melani, junior Claire Gong, and sophomore Paige Mcgaraghan finished in eleventh.
Though they competed in fewer events, the boys varsity team also contributed to M-A’s success. Senior Aidan Doherty placed sixteenth in the 800, senior Rowan Pecson ended the 1600 in the twentieth, and sophomore Cason Mitchell brought home ninth place in the lengthy 3200.
The boys also competed in the 4×800 meter relay, with juniors John Cutler and Christian Matsui and seniors Asher Goodman and Timothy Rousseau joining forces to take seventh place. They ran a time of 8:18, setting a new school record for the event by two seconds.
Cutler said, “It was amazing breaking the 4×800 record with my team. I think that was largely due to everyone being excellent teammates, cheering on runners even after we had just finished our own races.”
He continued, “We will hopefully beat this record again on Thursday at the PAL [Peninsula Athletic League] trials at M-A.”
The PAL varsity trials were held on Thursday afternoon, the semifinals will be on May 11th at Gilroy High School.
