The Paly girls’ track team headed to Los Altos High on Friday for the De Anza qualifier meet where many Vikings placed well enough to move on to the finals.

The high temperature affected many events, making some long distance races very strenuous for the runners.

"For the sprinting and JV distance events, it was brutal because of the weather," junior Lily Feng said.

The trials were an all-league meet where three athletes from each school in the De Anza League could be entered in each event.

In the 3200-meter event, the longest race of the meet, Feng showed that she was strong enough to fight through the sun and won her JV race. Feng began the race in second, trailing Gunn runner Joanne Reid. Feng passed Reid half way through the race and kept her lead to the end with a time of 12:13. After her race, Feng collapsed to the ground to get some well deserved rest and was able to get up to her feet after a few minutes.

The 300-meter hurdle event was anticipated to be a good race, and it proved to be an exciting one. In the second heat, senior Meghan Przybyla went against Gunn hurdler Jenice Law. It was nose to nose down the final 100 meters, but on the last hurdle, Law tripped, and Przybyla passed her for the win. Przybyla finished second overall with a time of 48.67. Although this time was over a second behind the winner, sophomore Christine Reed of Los Gatos, who finished in 46.96 seconds, Przybyla still has a chance to win in the finals. Also in the hurdles, Paly senior Elissa Chandler qualified after coming in third in her heat.

In the 200-meter sprint, junior Aly Seedman was Paly’s star runner. Seedman had a strong race, finishing second in her heat with a time of 27.54 seconds. This placed Seedman in seventh overall and qualifies her for league finals. The winner was junior Bria Nelson of Los Altos who finished in 26.34 seconds.

The Girls who qualified headed back to Los Altos High for the De Anza league finals yesterday.