Only two Paly runners will advance to the Central Coast Section finals after several disappointing races at CCS trials on May 23, in Gilroy.
The only good news came from the distance events, as both junior Philip MacQuitty and senior Skyler Cummins advanced to the CCS finals next week.
MacQuitty finished first in the 3,200-meter race in 9 minutes, 11.52 seconds, which is several tenths of a second faster than his CCS finals time from freshman year, which was the fastest freshman time in the nation. MacQuitty originally had not planned to run so fast, but as other runners began to slow down, he took the lead.
“I was feeling pretty good so I went pretty hard,” MacQuitty said. “It was definitely harder than my past two races, but it wasn’t an all-out effort.”
At CCS finals, MacQuitty hopes to repeat his freshman year victory.
“I’d like to get nine [minutes] flat,” Macquitty said. “Under nine would be a perfect season.”
Cummins will also race in the 3,200-meter at CCS finals as he took the last qualifying spot in 9:33.62.
“I’m really excited,” Cummins said, referring to his qualification for CCS Finals. “That was my season goal.”
Cummins was a little surprised at how difficult the race felt, but he has big goals for CCS finals.
“It took a little more of an all-out effort [than I expected],” Cummins said. “I hope to beat my seed, which is 12th, and break 9:20 [at finals]”.
The 400-meter relay team, consisting of seniors Paul Brown and Kasey Fields, junior Daniel Jones, and sophomore Miles Anderson, was disqualified for the first time this season when Fields and Anderson completed the final hand-off outside of the legal zone.
“That was actually the first time it [a bad hand-off] happened,” Anderson said. “I sort of slipped and then when I got up to full speed, Kasey [Fields] had already slowed down too much. It was just bad timing.”
This unexpected disqualification dashed the team’s hopes of advancing to CCS finals and ultimately the state finals.
Individually, Jones failed to qualify in the 100- and 200-meter races while Brown failed to qualify in the 400-meter.
The 100-meter runners faced a strong head wind during their race, so no runners managed to break the 11-second barrier. Jones finished 12th overall at 11.41 seconds, a disappointing finish for him.
“It was bad,” Jones said. “I didn’t feel like I was running that fast. I just wasn’t feeling it.”
Jones was unable to finish the 200-meter race because of hamstring problems.
“My hamstring had been hurting prior to the 200,” Jones said. “In the middle, I had to drop out.”
Returning from sickness and a tight hamstring, Brown also had a disappointing race in the 400-meter.
“I wasn’t able to work out for a couple of weeks,” Brown said. “My training got screwed up, and it played out here.”
Brown’s time of 51.14 seconds was several tenths of a second off his personal best.
“I didn’t think I’d move on [to CCS finals], but I’d hoped to PR [achieve a personal record],” Brown said. “I was not even close.”
In the discus, junior Haris Sultani also failed to qualify to CCS finals with a throw of 118 feet, 11.5 inches, several feet off from his personal best.
MacQuitty and Cummins will race again at CCS finals on May 29 at Gilroy High School.