After 3000 meters, the race came down to the final 200. Advancing around the last curve of the 3200 meter race, freshman Philip MacQuitty was in fourth place. In only 100 meters, MacQuitty sprinted past two seniors and a junior ahead of him. He then went on to increase his lead in the last straightaway.

MacQuitty’s stunning race was a highlight for the Paly boys track and field team, which competed in the Central Coast Section finals that took place May 25 at Gilroy High School.

“I was definitely excited – jumping up and down, kicking the fence, screaming ‘drive your arms! drive your arms!’,” head distance coach Jeff Billing said.

With his spectacular victory, MacQuitty became the first freshman to win the Central Coast Championships in the 3200 meter race.

“It was a brilliantly run race,” Billing said. “Staying in contact with the leaders the whole way, responding to every move that seniors with Division I scholarships were throwing at him, and then the last 200 meters he showed the world what he’s made of deep down inside. I can’t say that I expected him to win, but when the last 200 meters came, I knew he could run it in 30 seconds.”

MacQuitty finished the race with a time of 9:11:99, a 15 second personal record from his 9:26:76 time at the CCS semi-finals.

Billing had ample confidence in MacQuitty’s abilities. “I’ve learnedthat Philip can do almost anything that he sets his mind to, so no, Iwasn’t surprised by his race,” Billing said. “The kid loves to race, he loves to win, loves to test the limits of what he’s capable of. It seems that every time he’s run a great race we’ve said to ourselves, ‘well that must be as fast as he’s going to get,’ but then the next big race comes and he goes even faster.”

Although MacQuitty won his race at the CCS finals, he will face up against tough opponents when he competes in the California state level meet.

“I expect he’ll go out close to the lead pack, and I expect his first mile split will be faster than its ever been and then he’ll compete with some of the top high school runners in the country to see what he’s really made of,” Billing said. “He’s definitely not a favorite… If Philip can break into the top 10 that would be amazing. Whatever happens the whole experience of going to the state meet and competing against the best in the country will be awesome. It’ll definitely be fun to watch.”

According to Billing, the top runner in the field is Chad Hall, an Oregon-bound senior who is a national cross country champion and whose older brother is one of the best marathoners in the world. Also in the race will be UCLA-bound Michael Cybulski, the two-time defending champion of the 3200 meter race.

MacQuitty will be joined by junior teammate Mike Scott who qualified for the state meet in the triple jump event. Scott jumped 45-04.00, which placed him third, the last qualifying position behind senior Nathan Goodrich from Evergreen and junior Darryl Faust from Monterey who claimed the first and second place spots, respectively.

His jump was just shy of the previous 45-07.00 personal record he had set in the CCS semi-finals.

As a team, the boys placed fourth overall, with a total of 28 points. They fell short of Bellarmine College Preperatory which raked in 74 points, Los Gatos with 55.5 points, and Archbishop Mitty with 34 points.

“Placing fourth was a huge thrill for us as coaches,” Billing said. “There are only 16 events in a track meet, and our team placed in the top five in six of those events. Considering that this meet combined every CCS school, of all divisions, having that kind of depth is incredible. It will be really exciting to bring two underclassmen to the state meet next week – it’ll be a great experience for both of them.”

Paly boys also competed in the 4 x 100 relay, 4 x 400 relay, 100 meter individual and the long jump.

Scott missed qualifying for the state meet by one spot, coming in fourth overall at the high jump with a 6-04.00 vault.

Scott also ran in the 4 x 100 relay along with freshmen Daniel Jones, and seniors Trenton Hart and Will Frazier. The team achieved a new personal best time of 43:09 seconds, finishing fifth overall.

“I feel like the 4 x 100 did well,” Hart said. “We’re getting faster and faster.”

Hart also ran the 100 meter race, in which he again placed fifth with a time of 11.22.

“The 100 was not that great,” Hart said. “But I’m happy. There’s a lot of fast guys out there.”

Hart’s time was only a quarter of a second slower than first place finisher Reggie Topps.

The meet concluded with the 4 x 400 relay. Paly’s lineup consisted of Frazier, senior Alex Dalal, and juniors Julius Berezin and Willie Xiang. In a nail-biting race, they finished fourth with a season best time of 3:22:69, missing to qualify for the state meet by a single place. Bellarmine, the first place victor, came in at 3:20:07.

“I am definitely not disappointed that we didn’t qualify for states,” Xiang said. “The day before Friday’s race, I calculated that if we ran a 3:24 lows, we could qualify, but we shattered that mark and ran a 3:22. I do not regret anything.”

Billing agrees that the team has nothing to feel sad about.

“The 4×400 team was the biggest surprise of the season,” Billing said. “We knew Mike, Philip and the sprinters were going to be high-level CCS competitors, but we never imagined that our 4×400 team would even make it to CCS finals. With all their hard work, not only did they make it to the finals, but they were in the lead for parts of the race, battling with the leaders the whole way, and ended up missing states by just one place, just one second. There is no way that we could be disappointed with their performance.”

Collectively as a team they ran four seconds faster then they had ever before, with each athlete breaking 51 seconds for his respective 400 meter lap.

Xiang, who anchored for the team and was the only one to break the 50 second barrier, shaved a second-and-a-half off his time from the CCS semi-finals.

“I felt like I ran a really smart race,” Xiang said. “I kept my cool and did what I had to do.”

Billing said, “I’m so proud of the seniors Alex and Will who showed they could compete with the best in CCS, as well as the juniors Willie and Julius who now have a clear goal of going to states in their senior year.”

MacQuitty and Scott will continue on to compete in the 89th California Interscholastic Federation State high school track and field championships at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento City College on June 1-2.

To view videos of the races, visit http://www.dyestatcal.com/ATHLETICS/TRACK/2007/2007.htm