The Palo Alto High School boys’ track team will advance 10 athletes to the Central Coast Section Trials following solid performances across the board at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League Qualifiers meet on Friday night at Los Gatos High School.
According to senior Philip MacQuitty, who won two races, qualifying to CCS Trials next Saturday was the most important goal for every participant. He said that only the top six athletes in each event could advance to next Saturday’s race and team placement did not count at all. If the meet had been scored, however, Paly would have finished first with 106 points, ahead of local powerhouse Mountain View.
While MacQuitty won the 1600-meter race (in a meet record 4:22.30) and the 800-meter (in 1:57.50), his main concern at this point was simply qualifying.
“It [team score] doesn’t matter, as long as I qualified,” MacQuitty said. “I tried to help [senior] Pete [Wilson] today, that was the plan.”
MacQuitty hoped to help Wilson qualify in the mile by leading the race out fast, then slowing down. This inconsistent pacing could throw other runners off while Wilson continued at a steady pace.
“We had a strategy with Phil going hard then slow so I could go the same pace and catch people,” Wilson said. “It was pretty close. I was sixth for most of the race, and then I kind of went for broke and got ninth.”
Wilson finished the race ninth in 4:34.79, the final race of his high school career.
“It’s kind of sad that it’s all over but it was a good season to end with,” Wilson said.
He also hopes to continue running at Brigham Young University next year.
“I have a good chance of walking on at Brigham Young University,” Wilson said. “I really hope I can continue my running career there.”
Other Paly seniors still have a few more races to go. Senior Daniel Jones led Paly in a one-two-three sweep of the 100-meter race. Jones finished first from the slow heat to win the event in 11.10 seconds, while juniors Maurice Williams and Miles Anderson finished first and second in the fast heat in 11.12 and 11.39 seconds, respectively.
Jones wound up in the slow heat because of irritations to his hamstrings at the League meet, which happened a week ago at Paly and determined seeding for this meet. He also won the slow heat of the SCVAL Qualifiers in the 200-meter to finish second overall in 22.84 seconds.
“I can’t complain about my performance today,” Jones said. “My times weren’t as good as they’ve been, but considering that I still managed to win the 100 and place second in the 200 while being in the slow heats, I can’t complain.”
Jones feels that he has learned a lot about his body over the years, so hopefully his final season will be his best.
“I suppose I’ve been affected by last season in ways,” Jones said. “I’m more in tune with my body and its limits. More importantly, though, I know how to run, from a form and relaxation standpoint, far better than I did last year. I’ve used last season’s mistakes to make this season better.”
Anderson, Williams, and sophomores Morris Gates-Mouton and Tremaine Kirkman also teamed up in the 400-meter relay. The Vikings won the event in 43.53 seconds.
Senior Josh Newby also has at least one more meet to go after he improved more than 17 seconds from last week to finish third in the 3200-meter in 9:30.28. This was a huge improvement for Newby, nearly 24 seconds faster than the time he ran at this meet last year. Meanwhile, senior Andrew Stober concluded his season, finishing 16th in the 3200 in 10:32.82.
In the field events, seniors Michael Hueschen, Tyler Nigro and Bennie Williams will all advance in the high jump as they cleared 6 feet 2 inches, 6 feet, and 5 feet 10 inches for first, fourth, and fifth, respectively.
Maurice Williams also won the long jump and triple jump in 21 feet, 5.5 inches and 45 feet, 5 inches, respectively—nearly a foot ahead of the next competitor in the long jump and a foot and a half ahead of the next competitor in the triple jump.
Senior Haris Sultani will also advance in the discus with his throw of 135 feet, which was good for fourth place.
“My goals at this point is to end my season with a big PR [personal record] and try to make it into CCS finals,” Sultani said.
The CCS qualifiers will compete again at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 22, at Gilroy High School.