Already the De Anza League champions, the Paly varsity boys’ track and field team will send 15 individual athletes and two relay teams to the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League qualifiers at Los Gatos’ track this Friday.

As a team, the Vikings went undefeated, beating all six regional opponents to win first place in their division during the league finals at Los Gatos’ track on Thursday, when 11 Vikings and two Viking relay teams brought in 124.5 total points.

Individual athletes now enter the SCVAL qualifiers where they will contend against 15 other top athletes in each event from the De Anza and El Camino divisions for a chance to compete in the Central Coast Section semifinals scheduled for May 19.

Senior Sam Margevicius will proceed to the SCVAL qualifier meet after sweeping the hurdling events Thursday, winning the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.89 seconds and placing second in the 300 hurdles at 42.59. Margevicius credits his victories in part to the absence of one of his fiercest competitors.

“My win was aided by [Los Altos hurdler] Eric Hersey’s injury,” Margevicius said.

Hersey currently holds the California boys’ fourth fastest 110 hurdles time and is ranked first in CCS for both the 110 and 300 hurdles. However, Hersey was unable to compete Thursday due to back injury, according to Margevicius.

Margevicius also used strategy to hold off competition in his events.

“In the 300, I really tried to pace myself for the first 200 and just book it towards the end,” Margevicius said.

His game plan undoubtedly paid off, as Margevicius now moves on to compete with 15 of the fastest regional hurdlers in both the 110 and 300 hurdles on Friday.

Senior Trent Hart also dominated in his events by individually winning the 100-meter dash in 11.18 and finishing second in the 200 in 23.34, despite a seventh place seeding in the 100 and a fifth place seeding in the 200. With those times, Hart advances onto the SCVAL qualifiers this week.

Hart also ran as second leg on the 4×100-meter relay team which finished in first place last Thursday, with anchor senior Will Frazier crossing the finish line more than one full second before Lynbrook’s second place squad.

Today, Hart is proud of and content with the relay team.

“We’ve got a good team,” Hart said. “I’m running with my buddies. We’ve got a good friendship.”

Freshman Daniel Jones, the first leg on the 4×100 relay team, will also compete in the 100 and 200 at the SCVAL qualifiers. Jones is confident that the relay will advance much farther than CCS.

“If we run well, then we’ll definitely be able to go to states,” Jones said.

Junior Julius Berezin will also be joining some of his fellow Paly teammates at the SCVAL qualifier competition this week. Berezin ran in the 800, in which he placed fifth, with a time of 1:59.70. Nonetheless, Berezin tries to keep a level head as he enters the qualifying round.

“I feel good,” Berezin said of his performance Thursday, “but there are still a lot of people I have to beat to get farther.”

Other Vikings moving onto the SCVAL qualifiers include junior Mike Scott, who won first place in the high jump, long jump, and triple jump events last Thursday; senior Alex Dalal and junior Willie Xiang in the 400, in which they placed third in 52.58 and fifth in 52.71 respectively last Thursday; and freshman Philip MacQuitty, who won first place in the 3200 with a time of 9:27.67, finishing a full fourteen seconds ahead of second place Jonathan Chu from Gunn.

Junior Mohammed Abid will join Margevicius in the SCVAL qualifiers in the 300 hurdles, Frazier will compete in both the 200 and long jump, and junior Rajan Narang will race with MacQuitty in the 3200 at the SCVAL qualifiers, after placing ninth in the two mile at 10:15.44 Thursday. Throwing 48-11 1/2 in the shot put and 132-05 in the discus on Thursday, senior Fred Koloto will also advance to the SCVAL qualifiers, along with junior Dom Powell and senior Christian Bakken in the high jump, and junior Nick Godin in both the long jump and triple jump.

The 4×100 relay, comprised of Jones, Hart, Scott and Frazier; and the 4×400 relay, including Dalal, Frazier, Berezin and Xiang; will also move onto the qualifiers, both teams entering the competition with number one seeds.

All of the advancers will represent Paly as they compete in the SCVAL qualifiers scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday at Los Gatos’ track.