The Palo Alto High School boys’ track team is showing great potential for the season despite and starting off league competition with a painfully close loss, 66-61, to Mountain View High School on Thursday at Paly.
While the Vikings hoped to win, they were not disappointed with their performance, as this year’s final scores were a lot closer than those of the Paly-Mountain View dual meet last year, which Paly lost by more than 10 points.
“It seems like last year Mountain View beat us pretty good,” distance coach Joe Ginanni said.
In almost every event, Paly and Mountain View appeared evenly matched, so that the meet was eventually decided by the final event, an extremely close 1,600-meter relay. Paly clocked an impressive 3 minutes, 28.51 seconds, less than a second behind Mountain View.
In the sprint events, the Paly 400-meter relay team of sophomores Tremaine Kirkman, Terry Hill, and Morris Gates-Mouton; junior Miles Anderson started the meet off with a win from behind, as Anderson passed the Mountain View runner in the final leg for a Viking win in 44.82 seconds.
“I didn’t know how fast he [the Mountain View runner] was,” Anderson said. “I’d say he made me go a little faster.”
Anderson went on to win the 100-meter race and joined with Gates-Mouton and seniors Philip MacQuitty and Daniel Jones in the 1,600-meter relay team, which narrowly lost to Mountain View despite impressive splits by all four runners.
“My time was my best with automatic timing,” Anderson said, referring to his 11.45 second-finish in the 100-meter race. “My start wasn’t too good because I looked up at the start, but it was a pretty good race.”
Kirkman finished right behind Anderson in the 100-meter race, finishing second in 11.54 seconds. This was his first meet running varsity, and he felt the heightened pressure at this more competitive level.
“I was pretty nervous for everything,” Kirkman said. “It [varsity training] is less conditioning, more running. I PR’d [set a personal record] today so I feel a lot better [than last season].”
Jones did not compete in the 100- or 200-meter races, despite strong showings in those events in the past, but instead finished second in the 400-meter race in 51.59 seconds and raced a speedy 50.8-second 400 meters to conclude the 1,600-meter relay.
“I can’t complain because I’m not a 400-meter runner, but I wish I could get a rematch,” Jones said about his close loss in the 400-meter race. “I’m definitely running the 100- and 200-meters at invitationals, but after running a 100 or 200, for a couple of days afterward my hamstrings are shot, so for now I’m not running the 100 or 200 at dual meets.”
Sprints coach Jason Henry was very pleased overall with the sprinters’ performance.
“Everybody’s doing good,” Henry said. “We train hard everyday, with mileage, strength training, and some cross training. We have people who want to win.”
MacQuitty led the distance runners in the 1,600-meter race, easily winning in 4 minutes, 40 seconds, followed by seniors Josh Newby and Henry Jordan, who finished second and fourth, respectively.
“I was supposed to go out slow because I’m racing an 800 on Saturday, but it was a close meet so I just kicked it in,” MacQuitty said. “I feel like they [the Mountain View runners] felt it was slow, but they tried in the end. We all closed fast.”
Senior Alex Voet finished third in the 800-meter race, less than a second behind Mountain View’s Alex McGuirk. Voet’s impressive kick could have carried him past McQuirk into second place if the race had been a few meters longer.
“If I’d kicked a second earlier, I would’ve gotten second,” Voet said.
Paly also picked up up points in the 3,200-meter race, as seniors Peter Wilson and Ben Sklaroff claimed third and fourth place in 10:15 and 10:26.
“Our core group of distance runners are seniors, with more experience and focus,” Ginanni said. “Coming into this meet they already had a firm idea of where they wanted to be.”
In the jumps, athletes competed for the first time under new coach Tolu Wusu, a Paly grad who still holds the school record in the triple jump of 47 feet, 2.25 inches. This is Wusu’s first official coaching job, and he seeks to teach his athletes to avoid the mistakes he made, which resulted in multiple injuries.
“In my career I had quite the number of injuries, so I’m coming back and instilling the things I’ve learned, so that they’re not making the same mistakes,” Wusu said. “My career’s on hold due to injuries, so I’ve come back to help others excel in athleticism and not go through the same pitfalls.”
Senior Michael Hueschen felt that the team has not reached its potential because it is still so early in the season, but he expects to see improvement soon. He finished seventh in the long jump, fifth in the triple jump, and fourth in the high jump.
“We just haven’t practiced enough,” Hueschen said. “We were just conditioning until last week, and we don’t start working on form until later.”
Senior Bennie Williams proved to be a deciding factor in Paly’s close finish against Mountain View, as he cleared 6 feet, 4 inches in the high jump, barely losing to Mountain View’s Stephen Johnson, who cleared a very impressive 6’6″, which should qualify him for the state meet. He also placed third in the triple jump.
In the throws, senior Haris Sultani placed first in the discus throw and third in the shot put. Junior Kevin Anderson placed first in the shot put and sophomore Tory Prati placed second. Sultani already sees much improvement from last year.
“Last year it took me a while to get my form,” Sultani said. “This year I’m starting good.”
Throws coach Brandon Shalkowski was very pleased with how the team looks right now.
“It was a good day,” Shalkowski said. “The three varsity, Haris, Tory Prati, and Kevin Anderson, are all doing well. There’s a lot of young talent at the JV level, but no one’s named yet.”
The boys will race again against Lynbrook at 3:15 p.m. next Thursday on the Paly track.