The Palo Alto High School boys’ track and field team did not disappoint fans at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division finals on Thursday, with varsity coming in a close second to Mountain View, 132-103, and the freshman-sophomore team winning the league championship.
With a mild breeze and the sun beating down on the Paly track, the stage was set for an afternoon of personal records and disappointments alike.
Star runner Philip Macquitty (’10) won the mile with a time of 4 minutes, 19.60 seconds and the 800-meter race in 1:57.94. He holds the school record in both events with times of 4:13.92 and 1:52.37, respectively.
“I was happy giving 20 points to the team,” MacQuitty said.
Team captain Daniel Jones (’10) was seeded first and second in the 100 and 200, respectively, but ultimately placed last in both events due to a hamstring injury.
“My hamstrings capped out,” Jones said.
Miles Anderson (’11) placed fourth in the 100 and fifth in the 200, also citing his hamstring as the reason for his poor performance.
“Otherwise, I could have gotten top three,” Anderson said.
Nevertheless, the team was able to overcome injuries for a second place finish in the 100-meter relay against top competitor Mountain View.
The varsity field team swept the competition, with Maurice Williams (’11) winning the long and triple jump with distances of 20 feet, 9 inches and 44-5.5, respectively. The two victories followed his win in the 100 with a time of 10.99.
Bennie Williams (’10) took first in high jump at 6-4, followed by Tyler Nigro (’10) in third and Michael Hueschen (’10) in fourth. Both Nigro and Hueschen cleared 6 feet.
“Maurice got three PRs [personal records] today in long jump alone. It seems that this week [new] people started to understand, and the other jumpers got back to where they were last year,” field coach Tolu Wusu said of the boys’ overall end-of-season success. “As the season came to a close, people came into their own. As far as next year goes, now frosh-soph will have something to chase.”
Victor Du (’13) took first in the freshman-sophomore long jump and second in the triple, while Blaise Daigle (’12) placed third in long and fourth in triple.
The freshman-sophomore distance team proved somewhat shaky throughout the meet, but Nikolai Solgaard (’12) was able to capture first in the mile with a time of 4:43.08 and second in the 800 with 2:09.13.
Freshman-sophomore sprints found success in strong performances by Tremaine Kirkman (’12) and Lucas Brooks (’12). Kirkman placed first in the 100 with a time of 11.17, while Brooks took third in the 400 with a 54.26.
“I would say Tremaine and Lucas are my strongest runners,” coach Jason Henry said. “They both have a lot of heart and they take what they do and why we’re here seriously.”
Henry, in his second year of coaching freshman-sophomore sprints, finds that the team did well in meeting his heightened expectations as the season came to a close.
“They’re keeping up, it’s been pretty intense, but we’re doing okay,” he said.
The farthest that freshman-sophomore runners can advance is to DAL finals. Although DAL finals are, for many, the end of the season, for others they signal the end of an era.
MacQuitty, the Vikings’ standout distance runner, graduates in June.
“There have been some strong individual performances that have been helping the team, such as Philip [MacQuitty] and Maurice [Williams],” Jones said. “Next year our [varsity] distance game is going to be really weak.”
Peter Wilson (’10) said about next year’s distance team, “The goal’s to stay alive and keep on going on.”
Even considering the loss of star seniors, top sprinters such as Anderson and M. Williams are still juniors, Jones said, and both Henry and Wusu say they find promise in their underclassmen roster.
“That internal competition [between upperclassmen and underclassmen] makes it very beneficial because you always have someone to push you,” Wusu said. “You can’t really hope for anything more. There’s a lot of young talent that’s hungry and ready.”
Several boys will advance to the SCVAL Qualifier meet at Los Gatos High School next Friday, May 14.