After a disappointing 66-61 loss to Mountain View High School last week, the boys’ track team proved that it is a strong contender in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League with a commanding 79-43 victory over Lynbrook High School on Thursday.
The Vikings managed to win with several athletes resting for the Stanford Invitational this Friday and Saturday. Senior standouts Philip MacQuitty, Josh Newby and Daniel Jones did not run against Lynbrook, while senior Henry Jordan competed only in the 800 meters. MacQuitty broke the school and meet records in the 800 meters at the St. Francis Invitational last Saturday with a time of 1 minute, 52.37 seconds, which is currently the fastest high school time in the nation.
Despite these absences, the Vikings displayed their depth with athletes placing in the top two in every event except triple jump.
“We’re solid,” head coach Jason Fung said. “We don’t have any holes. Triple jump might be our only weakness.”
In the sprint events, Paly welcomed back junior Maurice Williams, who has not competed in track since freshman year. Williams won the 100-meter race in 11.44 seconds despite battling windy conditions. Fellow junior Miles Anderson finished second in 11.78 seconds, more than three tenths of a second slower than his time last week.
“The times were all slow,” Anderson said.
Fung agreed that this week’s winds were a marked contrast from the sunny conditions last week, which were ideal for sprinting.
“It was just a little windy,” Fung said. “Last week was sunny and perfect.”
Although Paly’s 400-meter relay team was disqualified after fumbling the first exchange between Williams and sophomore Terry Hill, the team was not overly concerned since this was only the second time the team ran together.
“Yesterday was my first day at track,” Williams said. “It was our first race.”
Williams replaced sophomore Tremaine Kirkman, who was moved down to junior varsity after missing a week of practice.
“Maurice came back, so we had to take one person off so they picked the person who missed practice,” Kirkman said. He dominated the junior varsity sprint events, finishing first in the 100- and 200-meter races.
Senior Niklas Wahlberg, who has never ran track before, captured the 400-meter race in 54.85 seconds. Wahlberg improved by nearly three seconds from his track meet last week, when he raced without spikes. Wahlberg has enjoyed running so far.
“It’s a good way to stay in shape and socialize,” Wahlberg said. “It’s fun to push the limits.”
While Jones did not compete in the dual meet, he looks forward to facing St. Francis’s Glyn Borel in the 100-meter race at the Stanford Invitational. Glyn is the fastest returning CCS athlete in the 100 meters from 2009, with a time of 10.80 seconds. Jones currently holds the fastest CCS time of 10.97 seconds.
“My best races are when I’ve picked someone I need to beat,” Jones said.
In the distance events, Palo Alto competed more for points than for record times, as runners took the opportunity to get a solid workout without going all out.
Seniors Peter Wilson and Ben Sklaroff decided to push the 1,600-meter race, knowing that the top Lynbrook runner did not want to race too hard as he will be competing in the 3,000-meter race at Stanford tomorrow. While Lynbrook senior Luca Signore eventually won the race in 4 minutes, 36.09 seconds, Wilson and Sklaroff were satisfied with their performances.
“It was a hard situation because the guy we were racing against was considerably faster than us,” Wilson said.
While Wilson was not unhappy with his time of 4:39.93, he hopes to eventually reach 4:25.
Sklaroff agrees that it is still early in the season and hopes to shave significant time later.
“It’s still early in the season so we’re still building base,” Sklaroff said. “We’re kind of ramping up right now.”
Sklaroff also finished third in the 800-meter race in 2:11.77, while Jordan narrowly finished second in 2:10.57, right behind Lynbrook sophomore Andrew Kuo. It seemed like nobody wanted to take the race out fast, as the first lap of the race went out in a leisurely 70 seconds while the second lap was run in a much quicker 60 seconds.
Wilson came back to win the 3,200-meter in 10:37.25, beating Kuo by a convincing margin of more than seven seconds. None of the runners wanted to lead the race, so much so that Wilson even walked at one point to force a Lynbrook runner to pass him. However, none of Wilson’s competitors could keep up with him as Wilson finished the race with a blistering 64 second final lap.
“I was worried because the other guy [Kuo] won the 800 meters and I’m not the most speed-oriented,” Wilson said. “It was a pretty strategic race.”
While the varsity runners showed their talent, distance coach Joe Ginanni was especially impressed by the younger runners’ performances.
“I was really excited by the frosh-soph mile,” Ginanni said. “For a lot of them, it was their first time in the mile, and to see were people are at was really exciting. A lot of guys are in shape to beak five minutes by the end of the season.”
Paly also won hurdle events, as junior Grant Sauer won the 110-meter hurdles in 16.37 seconds and senior Dustin Na won the 300-meter hurdles in 43.95 seconds. While Sauer struggled with injuries in the past two years, he feels optimistic about this season.
“Mainly the injuries were from soccer, and I just kind of brought them over to track,” Sauer said. “I’m not doing club soccer this year.”
Paly’s depth showed in the field events, with the Vikings sweeping the shot put and high jump while taking first and third in the long jump and discus throw.
“In the discus, they were competing finally,” throws coach Brandon Shalkowski said. “They’re still not close their potential though. It’s definitely not physical. They just have to focus.”
Several athletes will compete in the Stanford Invitational this Friday and Saturday, including Jones in the 100-meter race, MacQuitty in the mile, and a distance medley relay team with sophomore Morris Gates-Mouton, Newby, Jordan and MacQuitty.
The entire boys’ team will race against Milpitas High School at 3:15 p.m. next Thursday, at Milpitas.
“Milpitas may be a competitor, but we are not worried about it,” Fung said.