The varsity boys track team battled wind, rain, and Trojans Thursday, starting the season off positively with a narrow 64-63 victory over Milpitas.

“It was a great start to the season,” boys head coach Jason Fung said. “Winning the first meet really boosts confidence.”

The Varsity Boys finished third in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) in 2005, and Fung hopes to finish among the top three this year as well. Fung expects tough competition from Los Altos and Los Gatos, two strong teams who finished first and fourth, respectively, in SCVALs last year. However, Milpitas finished fifth in SCVALs last year, and the close score Thursday was somewhat surprising.

“We need to focus on winning the dual meets in order to be able to go into the league meet strong,” Fung said.

From the beginning of the meet it was clear that the Vikings were missing something. Last year, Paly graduated sprinters Pierre Meloty-Kapella, Gene Choy, David Lefebvre, and David White, all valuable assets to the team.

“We need to fill our sprinting gap,” Fung said.

Fung hopes that among the 80 other boys on the roster, senior Jeff Ashworth, junior Will Frasier and sophomore Robert Miller will be able to help fill the holes the graduates left.

Head girls coach Paul Jones agreed. “[Boys’] distance is good, hurdles are good, throws are good, but we need to improve in sprinting,” Jones said.

Luckily, athletes in the other events were able to make up for the lack of points in the sprints. The distance team looked solid, with seniors Scott Himmelberger, Zander Macquitty, and Francis Reynolds leading the pack. The trio swept the two-mile, with Himmelberger clocking 10:00 min. to finish first. Macquitty won the 1600m in 4:58 min. Junior Sam Margevicious finished first in the 110-meter hurdles at 16.88 seconds, and sophomore Julius Berezin won the 800m in 2:11 minutes. In throwing, junior rookie Fred Koloto won both the shot put and discus.

The Vikings were able to use the cold and windy conditions to their advantage to beat Milpitas by one point. The varsity girls won as well, 72-54.

Paly will race Monta Vista starting at 3 p.m. this Thursday at home.