The girls’ track team barely lost to the Los Gatos Wildcats, 56-65, on Thursday at Los Gatos High School.
The Vikings are improving in areas such as long distance, sprints, and hurdles, where coaches have already established a consistent group of athletes. However, according to girls’ head coach Jason Fung, the problem of uncommitted athletes in the 400-meter and high jump events has plagued the performance of the team throughout this season.
“Kids are still trying new things in spots that we need to fill up,” Fung said. “We still need girls to come and try different things.”
On Thursday, the jumping events finished strong. Junior Erika Hoglund dominated the triple jump and long jump with first place finishes in both events. Additional scores came from athletes trying the jumping events.
Freshman Torie Nielsen was the only runner in the 400-meter event and finished third with a time of 65 seconds. Nielsen said that although many athletes have been assigned to the 400-meter event, none have permanently raced in the event.
“It’s only the second time I have run the 400,” Nielsen said. “I think if I train for the 400-open I will do much better.”
A lack of athletes in the short and mid-distance events gave Los Gatos the winning edge. Only one Paly athlete competed in each of the 100-meter, 400-meter, and 800-meter events. In addition, an easy nine points were given to the Wildcats when no runner from Paly competed in the 200 because of injuries and conflicting school events.
In spite of the lack of athletes in some events, the Vikings showed improvement and consistency in others.
A notable performance came from sophomore Susan Heinselman in the 1600-meter. Running neck-to-neck against a Los Gatos runner, Heinselman kicked past her opponent in the last 200 meters to take third place at 5 minutes, 29 seconds, 24-second improvement from her previous personal record of 5:53. Before the race, Heinselman was told that if she ran the race in under 5:35, she would not have to compete in the 800.
“At first I thought I couldn’t do it,” Heinselman said. “But she was just five to ten meters ahead of me, so I listened to the people that were cheering to me and I did what they told me to do.”
In the hurdle events, senior Sylvia Price and freshman Ana Zander dominated the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles. The Vikings regained the nine-point deficit from the 200-meter event when no Los Gatos hurdlers showed up in the 300-meter hurdles. Price earned a personal record of 49.13 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles.
“I like it when I have someone to push me,” Price said. “But I think I did well under the conditions.”
Girls’ hurdles coach Allye Mullins agrees.
“Today we won sixteen out of eighteen possible points [in the hurdling events], which is really good,” Mullins said. “All the other hurdlers besides Sylvia are new time runners, and they are all improving, so that’s good.”
In the past, the 400-meter relay had always been shaky due to inconsistent hand-offs. Junior Emily Yeates, junior Maeve Stewart, Hoglund, and Nielsen displayed improvement on Thursday when the baton passed smoothly from runner to runner. According to Yeates, this was the second time that the team has handed off correctly. The team finished first with a time of 50.94 seconds.
Next week, Gunn High School will pose a challenge to the Vikings.
“The Gunn’s girls’ team is awesome,” Fung said. “Their distance team is very good- [Central Coast Section] level good, so we got to prepare for that. Unfortunately, I think Gunn has the same strengths as Paly, so it’s going to be a wash next week.”
The team’s next meet will be against Gunn at 5:30 p.m. on April 23 at the Paly track.