Paly’s boys’ track team is learning not to underestimate its competition after a disappointing 47-80 loss to Milpitas at Thursday’s dual meet.
Head coach Jason Fung did not expect Milpitas to be one of Paly’s top competitors, and early in the meet many of the Paly boys predicted an easy Viking win. However, the absence of several distance runners, an unfortunate cramp, and Milpitas talent all contributed to a convincing Milpitas victory.
The meet certainly started well for the Vikings with a comfortable win by the 400-meter relay team of freshman Miles Anderson, junior Daniel Jones, and seniors Paul Brown and Kasey Fields.
Overall, the boys were satisfied with their relay’s performance.
“That was actually pretty good,” Fields said. “We finally got it [the race] down.”
Jones went on to claim the only Viking win in an individual race that afternoon in the 100-meter dash. Fields and Anderson followed closely behind to sweep the event.
“That race was okay,” Jones said. “It’s a little cold out so I don’t think any of us could really do our 100 percent best, but we won — we swept them — so that’s what counts.”
Unfortunately, Jones was unable to complete in the 200-meter dash after experiencing a cramp halfway through the race, although Fields and Anderson secured second and third place, respectively.
Meanwhile, Brown narrowly lost to a Milpitas runner in the 400-meter run.
“I came out slow,” Brown said. “Usually I take the inside [lane] but today I didn’t, so by the time I came out of the first turn, he already had me. Next time I know to go out faster.”
In the hurdle races, junior Dustin Na, who has grown accustomed to scoring points, failed to do so in the 100-meter hurdle race with a fourth place finish, while scoring a single point with his third place finish in the 300-meter hurdle race.
“They’re not human,”Na said, referring to his Milpitas opponents. “Actually, they are, but… [I need more] endurance and technique. I should hang out with the long-distance crew.”
A single Milpitas runner dominated all the distance events. Junior Michael Karp easily won the 800-meter, 1,600-meter, and 3,200-meter races.
The Paly coaches decided not to run juniors Henry Jordan, Josh Newby, and Philip Macquitty and senior Skyler Cummins because they will be competing at the Arcadia Invitational over the weekend. According to long distance coach Josh Welsh, these top four distance runners will race in the 4 x 1,600-meter relay on Friday, while MacQuitty will also race in the individual 3,200-meter race on Saturday.
The remaining distance runners gave good efforts, claiming second place in all the distance events with personal bests.
In the 1,600-meter race, junior Ben Sklaroff finished second in 4 minutes, 51 seconds.
“It was really hard,” Sklaroff said. “I was trying to beat that other [Milpitas] boy, but he was a lot faster than me. He basically just paced off me for the first few laps, and then sprinted past me at the end.”
Junior Peter Wilson faced a similar problem in the 3,200-meter race.
“I ran really fast for me, but not good for the team,” Wilson said. “The guy who beat me was running only to win. He’d already ran the mile and the eight [800 meters], so he just wanted to go as slowly as possible but still win. Basically, he just paced off of me.”
Overall, however, Wilson felt good about the race, which he completed in 10 minutes, 6 seconds.
“It was a big PR [personal record],” Wilson said. “It might qualify for CCS top eight.”
In the 800-meter race, senior Jay Nguyen claimed second in 2 minutes, 9 seconds, a good race for him as well.
“It felt hard but I did really well,” Nguyen said. “I passed a lot of people. That’s very good.”
The meet ended with a narrow Milpitas win in the 1,600-meter relay, a disappointing conclusion to the meet.
Although middle distance coach Joe Ginanni felt that the loss was not totally unexpected, he cited several instances where the team might have done better.
“I think [coach] Jason [Fung] knew they [Milpitas] had good throwers,” Ginanni said. “The only race the boys ended up winning was the 100 [meter-dash]. A couple of things didn’t go well. Daniel [Jones] pulled up in the 200. He wasn’t injured, but he had a cramp. We’ve got a couple of guys going to Arcadia. I think that we would’ve been able to win both the mile and 2-mile, which would have made a 20-point swing.”
The boys will face even tougher competition next week as they compete against their main rival, Los Gatos High School, at 3 p.m. on Thursday on the Los Gatos High School track.