Paly’s track teams will take on cross-town rival Gunn this afternoon in their second-to-last meet of the season.

In both Paly and Gunn teams, coaches and athletes alike are excited about the meet. "We are looking forward to going over to Gunn and having the seniors lead us on," said Paly girls’ head coach Paul Jones. "We expect to come back with a victory."

The meet kicks off with a ceremony for the graduating seniors from both schools. It also features two other events, the Weightman’s Relay and the Coach’s Relay, neither of which count for points.

"Neither team is in contention for League, so this meet is about bragging rights," Gunn head coach Ernie Lee said.

Gunn has had a tough season after having to rebuild its team after losing some key athletes who graduated. "The girls team was affected the most," Lee said. "Out of 11 girls who competed at the League Meet at the varsity level, only four of them returned."

Gunn boasts distance runners Tori Tyler and Andrew Lipkin, while Paly boasts Danielle Miller, Amy Rogg, Alicia Ivanhoe, Herrel Siller, Xander McQuitty, and Scott Himmelberger.

Paly should do well in the throwing and hurdle events. The throwers are led by seniors James McCluskey and Nathan Taber and junior Alex Jugant.

"I expect all the hurdlers to do well, especially Chris Reade and David Lefebevre, as Yousef Ashufta will not be competing," hurdles coach Bruce Hori said. "We will continue to dominate Gunn in the hurdles as we have done in past years."

In sprints, Gunn is depending on Orlie Kapitulnik and Cathy Sun in junior varsity jumps. Paly will be relying on senior Ashley Gadson and freshman Alison Seedman in the varsity sprints and freshman Carissa Caryotakis in JV sprints.

This meet is Gunn’s last meet before leagues. Paly still has one more meet and will face Los Altos next week at Los Altos.

The teams have fairly even records. The varsity boys’ record is 3-2 for Gunn and 2-2 for Paly. At the varsity girls’ level, Gunn is 2-3 while Paly is 2-2. Gunn leads at the JV girls’ level with a record of 2-3 while Paly has a 1-2. The 9-10th grade boys’ division for Gunn are 4-1 whereas Paly is 0-2.

Both teams are on an equal footing, heavily dependant on a few key people. "You can never know how you compete with PA," Lee said.

Fung agreed, "We have key people all across the board and we know about their people. It depends on how these key people perform. They need to step up to meet the challenge and perform better. The second and third places are really going to count."

While Paly is fortunate to have no injuries at this point in the season, Gunn does have a few.

However, some wonder whether the two teams are up to par since spring break. "A week off helped some and hurt some," Fung said. "Some people were helped out by the break, gave them a chance to rest, while others were hurt by the lack of practice.

The meet will begin at Gunn at 3:00 p.m.