The Palo Alto High School boys’ track team triumphed over crosstown rival Gunn High School, 72-54, in a closer win than expected as the Vikings lacked depth in relays and distance events in a dual meet on Thursday.
The traditionally strong distance team rested several runners for the Central Coast Section Top Eight meet on Friday, including senior standout Philip MacQuitty. Although MacQuitty did not race, he paced Gunn senior Paul Summers in the mile as Summers attempted to break 4 minutes, 20 seconds. Summers just fell of pace with a final time of 4:21.40.
The Vikings picked up second and third in the mile as seniors Alex Voet and Ben Sklaroff finished in 4:46.96 and 4:59.30, respectively. The Gunn track is unique for distance runners since the athletes complete a full mile, 1609 meters, instead of the usual 1600 meters in high school meets. The 3200-meter race is also lengthened to a full two miles, or 3219 meters.
Voet is beginning to notice his hard work practice paying off as the season nears its end.
“I trained a lot over spring break,” Voet said. “Ideally I’d like to break 4:40 but we only have one more [league] race.”
The distance team’s lack of depth showed in the 800-meter race, as senior Mikkel Nielsen was the only Viking runner in the race. As a first-year varsity runner, Nielsen battled a crowd of Gunn runners to finish in 2:32.53, only two seconds short of his personal best.
Although distance coach Joe Ginanni had not planned on the notable absence of any top distance runners in the 800, he was not concerned by the Viking’s thin showing in the event and he was pleased with Nielsen’s performance.
Senior Henry Jordan, who usually runs the 800, decided to compete in the two-mile race instead. In that race, Paly senior Peter Wilson and Gunn senior Alex Johann decided to work together by taking turns leading laps to run their goal time of 9:45.
“He was going for a 9:45, and I thought I could do that too, so we alternated laps,” Wilson said. “Unfortunately, we were going too slow so there were a bunch of people on our tail, including Henry Jordan. Johann eventually died, and we realized that we’d accidentally set up the perfect race for Henry because when you have the wind blocked for you the whole time, you can kick.”
Jordan won the two-mile in 9:58.39 and Wilson finished second in 10:01.93. Although Wilson was disappointed with his finish, he acknowledged that the results proved favorable for Paly.
“Johann’s bad race meant a one, two finish for Henry and me,” Wilson said.
Paly’s depth really showed in the sprint, hurdle, and field events, as the Vikings won every single one of these events aside from the discus throw.
Junior Grant Sauer won both the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles, but he was disappointed with his times. He attributed his wins to Gunn’s lack of depth in those events.
“They [Gunn] were either stacking frosh-soph or they’re saving up for CCS Top Eight, which I’m not going to,” Sauer said.
A disappointing performance for Paly came in the relays, as the 400-meter relay team was disqualified when it failed to complete the hand-off from junior Maurice Williams to senior Bennie Williams. According to relay member sophomore Morris Gates-Mouton, this hand-off was tricky since Bennie just joined this relay team, replacing sophomore Terry Hill. Paly did not even race a 1600-meter relay team since MacQuitty and senior sprinter Daniel Jones will be competing at CCS Top Eight.
As a classic Palo Alto tradition, the meet ended with a thrower’s 400-meter relay and a coach’s 400-meter relay. Paly bested Gunn in both events, two satisfying wins that netted no points but plenty of pride.
“I haven’t done this in a long time,” said sprints coach Jason Henry, who ran in the race. “Overall it felt pretty good, and I gave it 100% effort.”
Henry led off the winning coach’s relay team, which also featured jumps coach Tolu Wusu, distance coach David Coughlan, and head coach Jason Fung.
Senior thrower Haris Sultani shared Henry’s pride as a member of the winning thrower’s relay team.
“It went really well,” Sultani said. “We got a big head start after the third leg and won easily for the varsity team.”
Not only did the Vikings pull off a convincing win, but it also showed potential for better performances in the future.
“We won but we could’ve done better,” Fung said.
The boys’ team will race again at 3:15 p.m. next Thursday at Los Altos High School in the last dual meet of the season.