The Viking girls’ varsity track team saw another strong performance from its sprinters and distance runners in its 62-55 win over the Monta Vista Matadors Friday, bringing its record at 1-1.
Leading Paly’s effort were sophomore sprinters Marissa Florant and Emily Yeates. Florant won the girls 100-meter hurdles in 17.5 seconds and took fourth place in 200-meter hurdles at 56.5 seconds. She also participated in field events, taking third place in the high jump at 4 feet, 3 inches and second in the long jump at 28 feet, 11½ inches. Yeates finished second in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, in 12.9 and 28.0 seconds, respectively.
“[She] really hasn’t hit her sprinting speed yet,” sprints coach Joe Park said, adding that Yeates was nursing a slight calf injury. “But [she] will if she stays off of injury.”
Paly’s long distance team also contributed to its point total. Mia Lattanzi continued to dominate the long distance races, as she won the 1600-meter run in a time of 5:07.9 and ran the anchor leg of the Vikings’ 4 x 400-meter relay team, which won in 4:23.2. Junior Vicky Morton also put up three more points with a second-place finish in the 800-meter run at 2:41.1.
“Some people are finally figuring out that they can run a [race] and that they won’t die,” Jones said.
Monta Vista could only get a foothold in the throwing events, as the Matadors swept Paly in the discus and took two of the top three spots in the shot put. Paly throwing coach Brandon Shalkowski noted that the Vikings only have two varsity throwers and that he will be looking to move people up in the coming weeks.
“It all depends on who is going to work the hardest,” Shalkowski said, “The throwers need to learn to compete, not only against their opponents but against themselves and that every day is another chance to get a [personal best]”
Monta Vista did not field a team in the 4 x 100-meter, 4 x 400-meter or 400-meter races, and Paly head coach Paul Jones was able to allow some runners to recover instead of participating in more races.
“It [the meet] was probably closer than it should have been,” Jones said. “But we were able to rest some people and not triple and quadruple people.”
The junior varsity team also posted its first win, 78-27.
The varsity Vikings’ next meet will be at Gunn on Thursday at 3 p.m.
“Gunn will be tougher for the girls,” Jones said.