Team on ‘track’ to improve as a whole

    Sprinting down the track, sophomore Jaijit Singh sped past his opponents in the 200m event during the first meet against Monta Vista on March 10 and ended up placing first.

A top sprinter in the 200 and 400 meter events, Singh is looking to lead the team to success despite the setbacks they have faced in the past year, such as injuries and the loss of key runners.

    Singh’s personal best for the 200 meter race is 24.39 seconds, just two seconds from the school record, and 52.0 seconds for the 400 meter race, just four seconds from the record.

“[The team] was better last year because of the talent,” Singh said. “Last year, we had the likes of [class of 2015 graduates] Andrew Harter, Steven Sum and a few others that were the root to our success and [the] real leaders of the team.”

    Additionally, Singh and the rest of the team are looking to improve the overall unity. But because less people have signed up for track than in previous years, the team has found it hard to manage. The team previously had 150 members and now has 123.

"[The team as a whole] has significantly shrunk in size from last season, which means we have much fewer runners to score points at meets,” sophomore hurdler Clifford Yin said. “At the moment, we can't really do anything about this particular issue, so we just have to roll with it and make the best of what we [have]."

On the distance team, senior Matthew Peterson, a CCS champion for cross country, has also faced difficulties.

Unlike cross country, distance running for track requires much more strength and speed. Due to this, the team must have many more interval workouts and weightlifting sessions in order to improve.

Peterson, who runs the 800 meter, is the team’s No. 1 distance runner with a personal record of 2:01 minutes. He said that the team also struggles with using time at practice effectively.

Peterson said that due to the lack of organization at times, the team “does not get started on [its] workouts fast enough,” so this at times results in not having enough time to weight lift.

With previous distance coaches Peter Jordan and Dan Ambrico not coaching this year, the varsity runners have had to adjust to the new distance coach, Scott Bang, who coached cross country in the fall.

“I think the upperclassmen were used to being more independent under [the old] coaching, but the new coach is making the team get used to each other,” sophomore distance runner Amit Nag said.

Despite all the challenges, the team is putting in the work in practice.

"Above all, I fiercely want to see improvement from everyone, not just physically but also mentally,” Yin said. “With hard work and dedication, we can reach these goals and come out on top."

    The Cupertino meet that took place on March 17 could not be covered by the Falcon in the print edition due to printing deadlines.