Courtesy of Alice Zheng
Sophomores Bryan Luo, Daniel Yeh, Farhaan Shikalgar, Bennett Strong and freshman Faiz Musani race down the track for their usual sprints warmup.Head Coach: Archie Ljepava
Last year’s record: 1-5 (boys’ varsity), 3-3 (girls’ varsity)
Recap: The team concluded the 2024-25 season by hosting the ECL trials and finals for the first time since 2016. Ten individual athletes and all relay teams qualified for the SCVAL Championships. Notable performances included senior Natalie Zaragoza taking first in the 100m, senior Dylan Wilson setting a personal record of 11.21 seconds in the 100m, and sophomore Kyle Liu winning the JV league title in discus. Despite mid-season coaching adjustments, the team had significant advancements across both sprints and distance events.
Key Matchups: Cupertino and Santa Clara
Star Players: Senior Vedant Padhi (400m and 800m); juniors Debesh Das Sharma (800m), Daniel Murphy (100m and 200m sprint) and Joseph Zhao (110m and 300m hurdles); sophomore Claire Hou (1600m and 3200m); and freshmen Josh Chatterjee (400m and 800m), Arjun Garlapati (800m), Alexander Khain (800m) and Dhruv Rao (100m)
Key losses to graduation: Dylan Sordello, Dylan Wilson and Natalie Zaragoza
League: El Camino
Prognosis:
The track and field team will compete in its first meet of the season against Fremont on March 5, featuring a new roster heavily reliant on underclassmen and a reorganized coaching staff. After the opener against Fremont, the team will then travel to MacDonald on March 12 for its first away meet of the season.
With athletic director Rick Ellis not coaching this season, head coach Archie Ljepava has filled in as their temporary jumping coach. The team also integrated a new sprint coach, Danielle Kelly, a former college runner, from the middle school level to manage the short-distance runners.
While the team lacks a dedicated throwing coach, Ljepava is supervising shot put and discus athletes in the weight room to maintain strength training while the school searches for a specialist. Despite the coaching changes this season, the program is emphasizing “cutting down,” a process where athletes decrease their total weekly mileage while increasing the intensity of their runs to the peak of their ability.
“The beginning of the season is where you cut off most of your time,” freshman mid-distance runner Josh Chatterjee said. “Your body is fresh from the off-season, and you’ve hopefully built a good aerobic base.”
Chatterjee, who aims to run a sub-2-minute time in the 800m this year, noted that the training atmosphere has shifted more toward consistency under distance coach Amanda Follmar. The team has also begun incorporating technical “block work,” a specialized sprinting start routine using starting blocks as well as shorter sprints to focus on building an anaerobic base.
The Falcons are looking to build on the momentum from last season, when 10 individual athletes and all relay teams advanced to the SCVAL Championships. While the team’s key point-scorers, Dylan Wilson and Natalie Zaragoza, have graduated, the current group is eyeing long-term goals and promising opportunities driven by their freshmen athletes.
Freshman Arjun Garlapati, Alexander Khain and Dhruv Rao are already performing at varsity levels in events running from the 100m to the 800m. This upbringing of young, talented athletes has shifted the team’s focus towards future regional success.
The Feb. 27 Toga Time Trials was a preview of the season and a way to help athletes find their best events. The team in the 400m race was Garlapati, who finished in 52.46 seconds, and Khain, who finished in 53.85 seconds. Rao finished first in both the 100m and 200m events with a time of 12.14 and 24.73 seconds, respectively.
“Because of our strong freshman and sophomore classes, we aim in the next few years to qualify for Nike Outdoor Nationals in one of the relay events,” Chatterjee said. “If we can realistically expect a [qualification] in my senior or junior year, that’d be really cool.”
