The Paly girls’ track team excelled in the CCS trials, Satuday, at San Jose City College, with many runners setting personal records.

The mile run was one of the more anticipated events for the team, since this was the only event where two Paly runners, juniors Alicia Ivanhoe and Renata Cummins, advanced from SCVAL qualifiers. For most of the race the two stuck together in the middle of the pack, but on the last lap, Ivanhoe left Cummins behind and put all that she had into the home stretch. Ivanhoe came in fourth in the heat with a time of 5:06 which was a 13 second PR. This placed Ivanhoe in sixth overall and qualifies her for the CCS finals meet. Cummins finished with a time of 5:20, but did not qualify for CCS finals. The winner of the heat and overall was Taylor Johnson of San Lorenzo Valley High who had a time of 5:01.

In the 100-meter hurdles event, senior Elissa Chandler had a solid race, placing second in her heat with a time of 15.51 seconds. This placed her fifth overall and qualifies Chandler for CCS finals. First in the heat and overall was Vashti Thomas of Mount Pleasant High who finished with a time of 14.34 seconds.

Sophomore Mia Lattanzi had another fascinating 800-meter race. Lattanzi went all out in her heat, and showed how fast she can be, finishing first with a time of 2:12, setting a personal record by four seconds. This time placed Lattanzi first overall and qualifies her for CCS finals. Second in the heat was Kelly Long of San Lorenzo Valley High who had a time of 2:17. Lattanzi’s closest competitor overall was Thea Lee of Carmel, who was four seconds behind with a time of 2:16.

Multiple Vikings fell just short of qualifying for the finals in other events. In the 300-meter hurdles, senior Meghan Przybyla finished second in her heat with a time of 47.81. This time placed Przybyla ninth overall, but did not qualify her for CCS finals. Przybyla was three tenths of a second away from eighth place to qualify for the finals. Another close race for the team was in the 3200-meter event with senior Naomi Horiuchi. Horiuchi placed eighth in her race and fourteenth overall with a time of 11:53. Only the top 12 qualify for CCS finals, and Horiuchi was only eight seconds away from advancing, which is very close in a long race like the two mile.

Lattanzi, Chandler and Ivanhoe head to the CCS finals meet which takes place at 6 p.m. Friday at San Jose City College.