The track and field team hosted its first meet on March 13 against Monta Vista and MacDonald and came away with some notable victories along with plenty of motivation to improve as the season moves on.
While specific the overall meet totals had yet to be released as of March 15, Falcon runners won several distance events, including the 1,600-meter in both boys’ and girls’, as well as sprint events such as the boys’ 400-meter and girls’ 100-meter.
The meet is one of five league meets this season for the team; the next two are scheduled for March 20 at Wilcox and March 26 at Cupertino.
The boys’ distance team saw the greatest success, with sophomore Debesh Das Sharma winning the 800-meter with a time of 2:15 and senior captain Dylan Sordello winning the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter, running a 4:48 and a 10:33, respectively.
Sordello called the meet a strong start to the season, yet still felt unsatisfied with his results; his personal record in the 1,600-meter is 10 seconds faster than 4:48, while his 3,200-meter best time is a 9:59 — around 30 seconds below what he ran last Thursday.
Nevertheless, Sordello has seen big improvements in his performance since last year thanks to his offseason training.
“During the offseason, I hit at least four easy runs and 1-2 VO2 max threshold (a workout to maximize oxygen intake) workouts a week since I had extra time,” Sordello said. “I’ve been working really hard during practices — the whole team has — and I’m now aiming to break 4:30 for the 1,600-meter and 9:45 for the 3,200-meter.”
For senior captain Kitty Gechlik, this meet reflected a change in attitude toward the sport. Now in her second year as a captain, Gechlik feels that her relationships with her teammates are just as valuable as the times she runs. As a result, this mindset has helped her relax more fully during races.
At the meet, Gechlik ran a 14.15 100-meter dash, a 29.71 200-meter dash and her relay team ran a 56.1 4×100-meter.
While Gechlik didn’t improve her best times in any of those races, she saw the potential to beat her personal records of 13.89 in the 100-meter event and 28.07 in the 200-meter event. Primarily, she attributes her chances for improvement to better coaching this year.
“Last season, we had a new coach who didn’t really know the team that well. On top of that, our workouts were random, and we didn’t train specifics,” Gechlik said. “This season, [head coach Rick] Ellis tells us exactly what we’re doing in each workout. He tells us what to work on and how to specifically get faster.”
For her, this season has been focused on improving form, something she feels wasn’t apparent last year.
While Gechlik didn’t originally plan to return to track, she feels her main goal this season is to support others on the team. Whether it’s the friends she does workouts with or the underclassmen she leads, the experience of seeing her teammates succeed is fulfilling.
Besides Sordello and Gechlik, other standout performances included ones from freshman Claire Hou and senior Natalie Zaragoza. Hou ran a 5:33.46 in the 1,600-meter, an astounding 1:30 faster than second place. Zaragoza, on the other hand, won the 100-meter event after running a 13.13.
For sophomore sprinter Arian Lotfizadeh, the meet marked his new personal best in the 100-meter event, after he ran it in 13.22. Just like several athletes on the track team, he felt his performance at the meet was a strong motivator for the rest of the season.
“I think this year, I already see a lot of improvement in my running form and my speed,” Lotfizadeh said. “[Jumps coach] Archie [Ljepava] and Ellis have helped me improve my form, and I believe that my work in basketball has helped me become a better runner. Now, my eyes are on the next meet, hoping to cut seconds off my events.”
