The track and field team competed in the El Camino League (ECL) trials on May 1 and finals on May 3; the boys’ and girls’ varsity teams each finished in fourth, while the JV boys finished in fifth and the JV girls placed third.
While most athletes completed their last meet on April 23, 14 individual athletes qualified for the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) finals on May 9.
On the boys’ side, senior James Gavin competed in the 100m dash, taking home fifth place as he hit a new personal record of 11.61. For hurdles, seniors Matthew Liu, Yash Sharma and junior Joseph Zhao all put up competitive times in the 110m and 300m hurdle events to finish in the top eight. Junior Benjamin Zinman placed eighth as he cleared a height of 5 feet 4 inches in the high jump.
For the girls, sophomore Claire Hou placed second in the 1,600 with a time of 5:27.86 and second in the 3,200m with a time of 11:54.29. Meanwhile, freshman Mihika Mishra competed in the 3,200m and finished eighth with a personal best time of 13:13.17. In the hurdle events, sophomore Chelsea Liang placed fifth in the 100m with a time of 18.25 and first in the 300m Hurdles with a new personal best of 49.90. Senior Lavanya Bose also ran the 100m Hurdles and 300m Hurdles, securing eighth with a time of 19.32 and third place with a personal best time of 51.59, respectively. In the field events, sophomore Elise Hubert competed in the high jump and triple jump, placing second with a jump of 5 feet and fourth with a jump of 15 feet and 10.50 inches, respectively.
Several relay teams ran at SCVAL as well. On the boys’ side, Zhao, freshman Dhruv Rao, Gavin and senior Cole Mason ran the 4x100m relay, placing fifth with a time of 44.92. The 4x400m relay squad, consisting of junior Debesh Da Sharma, senior Vedant Padhi, freshman Alexander Khain and junior Max Nyden, placed sixth with a time of 3:35.42.
On the girls’ side, freshman Sofia Gonzalez, Bose, sophomore Kayley Ren and Hubert ran the 4x100m relay, placing sixth with a time of 51.45, and Gonzalez, Ren, Hubert and Hou ran the 4x400m relay, placing second with a time of 4:27.33.
To advance to the Central Coast Section (CCS) trials on May 16, athletes had to qualify by marks or place among the top five finishers at the SCVAL finals.
This season, only Hubert qualified for CCS after placing fourth in the league for both high jump and long jump. At the CCS semifinals, she jumped 4 feet, 10 inches in the high jump, placing 16th, and jumped 15 feet, 8 inches in the long jump, placing 22nd.
“I wasn’t happy with my performance just because I was injured,” she told The Falcon. “I had shin splints, so I couldn’t perform to my best ability. I wish I had jumped a little higher.”
Though her marks fell short of her own expectations, Hubert appreciated the vast scale of the event, noting that she was awed by the monumental atmosphere when competing.
“It takes a lot to get there, and I was surprised that no one else from our school got in, even though we had some really fast runners,” Hubert said.
This season, the team expanded its competitive presence and reached new heights by attending elite invitational meets and hitting new personal records.
The momentum picked up in late March near the beginning of the season. During the Dublin Distance Fiesta, Garlapati ran a personal best time of 1:59.15 in the 800-meter, placing 42nd out of 1,201 athletes. Meanwhile, the underclassmen girls’ 4×400-meter relay team shaved off chunks of time, dropping to a 4:26.64 at the March 26 Wilcox meet.
The Falcons celebrated their seniors on April 2 at home against Cupertino. 18 seniors are graduating this June — Alec Guan, Andrew Zeng, Jack Dong, Jack Tong, Kyle Li, Jerry Chang, Cole Mason, James Gavin, Matthew Liu, Yash Sharma, Nolan Woo, Rodric Fan, Vedant Padhi, Zach Stanis, Lavanya Bose, Nikita Mirghasemi, Mridhula Vudali and Arbel Talker.
Seniors celebrated by running an all-senior 4x400m relay at the end of the meet, with each senior wearing their costume and passing the baton in creative ways. The team dressed up as characters from the hit movie “Despicable Me.” The girls wore orange tracksuits while roleplaying the antagonist Vector, while the boys wore yellow shirts and overalls as Minions.
The meet also featured a special walk-down where underclassmen lined up with posters to cheer for the graduating athletes. For Talker, who has been on the team for three years since her sophomore year, the highlight of the night was seeing the time and effort the underclassmen put into senior night.
“Last year, we were going full out as juniors to make sure it was a good night for the seniors, so we were hoping they would do the same,” Talker said. “There was a whole walk-down where people lined up, and they cheered for you with posters. The posters were really cute.”
The costumed relay was also Talker’s favorite part of the night, even if it meant not putting their fullest effort, unlike in a competitive track meet.
“We were all going into it [thinking]: ‘OK, we’re not gonna actually sprint this, because I have a whole fake stomach to hold [as part of the Vector costume], so we jogged it,” Talker said. “It was really fun because I lapped some guy — I just remember fully falling to the ground after that.”
While senior night provided a lighthearted break and a bittersweet goodbye for the team, the athletes left everything on the track at the CCS Top 8 Invitational on April 18. This elite meet invites only the top-16 fastest athletes whose individual times rank in the top 16 of the entire CCS leaderboard.
Hou secured a second-place finish in the 3,200m run in the Frosh Soph Division, running her previous personal record time of 11:41.27, which she beat a week later at the CCS Last Chance Invitational with her personal best time of 11:36.86. Garlapati competed in the 1,600m race in the Frosh Soph Division, placing seventh. Liang ran the 100-meter hurdles and 300-meter hurdles, placing second in the 300-meter hurdles in the Frosh Soph Division.
Both relay teams raced in the Frosh Soph division. The boys’ 4×400-meter relay lineup featured Khain, Salhotra, freshman Josh Chatterjee and Garlapati, who secured eighth place with a time of 3:47.16. The girls’ 4×400-meter relay team, composed of Gonzalez, Liang, Hubert and Hou, secured second place with a personal record of 4:25.24.
Hubert earned second place in the high jump at the Top 8 Invitational with a season-best, clearing 5 feet after overcoming a mid-season plateau. She noted that after clearing 4 feet, 10 inches early in the year, she experienced persistent difficulty during competitions.
“I had a mental block a little way through this season,” Hubert said. “I just got scared of the bar. Every meet I would jump a little bit less, like 4 feet, 8 inches or 4 feet, 6 inches; and I just couldn’t bring myself to get over it.”
Hubert credited the competitive environment of a weekend invitation meet with helping her find her motivation. Watching her peers helped her re-establish her competitive will to reach her 5-foot season best.
This progress peaked at the ECL trials in early May. Needing top finishers to extend their seasons and advance to postseason leagues, individual athletes set multiple personal records during the league elimination trials to lock in their 14 roster spots for the SCVAL championship bracket.
Despite this season’s success, the track and field roster relied heavily on underclassmen, as the track and field team faces a recurring challenge with retaining strong upperclassmen athletes. According to head coach Archie Ljepava, many students opted out of the sport during their junior year to focus on their academic workload.
“[Juniors] end up taking the year off to study or focus on other things when they should be out getting physical activity because it actually helps with your studying,” Ljepava said.
Looking toward next season, the school’s athletic department has confirmed its throws replacement coach, Noah Bryant. He is a former Pac-10 — a premier National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) division — champion from the University of Southern California (USC), and will coach shot put and discus.
“[I’m] super proud of the athletes that were out,” Ljepava said. “Everybody stayed engaged and worked really hard at bettering themselves throughout the year.”
