The Palo Alto boys’ track team looks prepared for a strong season after a convincing 96-31 victory over Los Altos in its first league meet of the season on Thursday.

The meet began with a comfortable Viking victory in the 400-meter relay as junior Daniel Jones, seniors Paul Brown and Bobby Holman, and sophomore Miles Anderson finished the race in 44.83 seconds. Jones, Brown, and Holman each individually won a race later on in the meet.

“It felt pretty good,” Anderson said. “Our hand-offs were pretty rusty, but I hope we’ll make it to CCS [Central Coast Section].”

Later in the meet, Jones easily won the 100-meter sprint at 11.55 seconds. Still, Jones was not impressed with his performance and sees plenty of room for improvement for the season to come.

“It wasn’t that great of a race,” Jones said. “My main weakness is my end game. I basically get my top speed and then I can’t hold it.”

Meanwhile, Brown claimed the 400-meter race at 53.36 seconds, while Holman won the long jump with a 20 foot, 8 inch jump. Although Holman won the event, he still has his sights on the future.

“I feel like I need to train a lot harder,” Holman said. “I want to make it to states, and I want to break the school record of 23-11 1/2.”

In the first individual event of the evening, the 1,600-meter run, junior Philip MacQuitty narrowly secured a first-place finish at 4 minutes, 36.74 seconds. Junior Eric Safai of Los Altos followed right on his heels with a 4:36.75.

“I’m happy because Eric’s very fast,” MacQuitty said. “He used to be on my soccer team, and he’s a good guy.”

MacQuitty hopes to eventually get 8:56 in the 3,200-meter run, 4:12 on the 1,600, and 1:54 on the 800.

Distance coach John Welsh was impressed by the boys’ performance so early in the season.

“This mile went pretty well for the first meet,” distance coach John Welsh said. “The boys were as fast or faster than I expected at this point.”

Los Alto’s Safai redeemed himself in the 800-meter run with a convincing win at 2 minutes, 6 seconds. Senior Jay Nguyen came in second at 2:12.06, while senior Abe Wilson came in third at 2:15.57.

“It felt really painful,” Nguyen said. “I can’t believe the other guy [Safai] beat me. I just need to train harder to get faster.”

Mid-distance coach Joe Ginanni was impressed by the boys’ performance so early in the season.

“We’ve been doing over-distance training, and we haven’t really done anything short and fast yet,” Ginanni said. “I was especially impressed by the younger, newer guys.”

Freshman Thaddeus Claassen won the frosh-soph 800-meter race at 2:21.77 while freshman Charlie Zhou placed third at 2:28.38.

In the hurdles races, the Vikings counted on a duo of juniors for two solid victories. Dustin Na won the 110 hurdles in 18.12 seconds while Steven Kerr won the 300 hurdles in 31.10 seconds.

Another duo of juniors competed for the high jump title. Bennie Williams eventually triumphed over Michael Hueschen, although both managed to clear 5 feet, 7 inches.

“At first I didn’t think I could do it,” Williams said. “I could only clear 5-2 at practice, but I felt really good today. My goal is 6. I plan to do lots of leg workouts: squats, lunges, just working on my legs.”

Senior Skyler Cummins dominated the last individual race of the evening, easily winning the 3,200-meter race in 9 minutes, 55 seconds, more than 20 seconds ahead of his closest competitor.

“I think last season in the first dual meet, I ran 10:06 and that was an all-out effort racing someone else,” Cummins said. “I ran a 9:55 today solo, pretty much just cruising.”

The boys ended the evening perfectly, triumphing in a closely contested 1,600-meter race. Juniors Peter Wilson, Shawn Barry, Philip MacQuitty and senior Josh Davis won in 3 minutes, 42.48 seconds. The last 100 meters was a head-to-head race between Davis and his Los Altos counterpart, but Davis managed to come out with the win after a push across the finish line.

“It felt amazing,” Davis said. “I definitely thought I was going to lose. For the last 50 [meters] I could hear him breathing behind me. It was pretty intense.”

The boys will compete again at 3 p.m. on Thursday, March 19, against Mountain View High School on the Mountain View High School track.