It’s fitting that senior mid-distance runner Mia Lattanzi gave the Viking girls’ track team a brief advantage over Gunn in its 67-55 loss Thursday.
Lattanzi, who won the 800m race in 2:26.9, pulled away from her nearest Gunn rival with 150 meters left to put Paly (1-2) up 32-31 halfway through its match against the Titans and secure her third victory in that event in as many meets. Mid-distance coach Joe Ginanni attributed Lattanzi’s streak to the competitive running she did in the fall.
“I think it’s been a major factor,” Ginanni said. “She’s really strong from cross country and it’s just given her confidence that she can run with people as fit as her.”
The half-mile win completed a short-lived comeback by the Vikings, who fell behind early and did not hold the lead for long. Gunn took the top spots in the mile run, the 100-meter hurdles and the 400-meter dash after both teams were disqualified in the 4 x 100 m relay for making hand-offs outside of the zone.
“We would have beaten them pretty easily [in the 4 x 100],” girls’ head coach Paul Jones said, “So we threw away five points there.”
Junior Allie Whitson leaped 4 feet, 8 inches to take the win in the high jump and sophomore sprinter Emily Yeates added five more points to the Vikings’ total with 12.6-second victory in the 100-meter dash to tie Gunn, 27-27, before Lattanzi came to the line.
The Titans retook control almost immediately, taking first and second place in the 300-meter hurdles and winning the triple jump to go back up, 49-41. Paly’s only point in the hurdles race came from a third-place finish by junior Sylvia Price in 52.9 seconds.
“The 300 hurdles need some work,” Jones said.
Paly got a strong performance in the field events, including a win from sophomore shot putter Katerina Peterson, whose best throw was 26 feet, 9 inches, and won the 4 x 400-meter relay in 4:15.1. But Gunn sealed the match by taking all 14 points in the two-mile run, putting three Titans ahead of Paly’s top finisher, sophomore Kathleen Higgins, who finished in 12:33. The Vikings’ coach attributed the loss primarily to Gunn taking advantage of Paly’s mistakes.
“Where we were [usually] strong we had some problems,” Jones said.
The junior varsity girls beat Gunn, 67-59.
The Vikings will next take on the Los Gatos Wildcats in an evening matchup at Paly on April 1 at 5:30 p.m.