Track finishes season with two finalists in CCS

At CCS finals on May 25 at Gilroy High School, senior sprinter Jaijit Singh placed fourth in the 400-meter race with a time of 49.99 seconds while senior thrower Paige Hansen placed seventh in discus with 113”8’; both barely missed qualifying for NorCals, which requires a top-three finish.

“I feel pretty good about the progress I made this season, considering I reached my goal of getting [past 120 feet] and beat the school record,” Hansen said. “But by the time CCS came around, I had already peaked, so I didn’t exactly throw as far as I would have hoped.”

Also qualifying were senior Chloe McGhee in the 300 meter and sophomore distance runner Julia Hoffman in the 1600 meter. Neither advanced past the preliminary round on May 19.

While only some members made it to CCS, the entire team competed at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) meet on May 11 at Santa Clara High School.

Singh qualified after placing first at SCVAL in the 400 meter with a time of 50.25. He spent the next few weeks preparing for CCS by ramping up his workouts and increasing the reps of each of his exercises.

Hansen also qualified for CCS after placing third in discus at the meet, throwing 113”7’, yet felt that it was not her best performance.

“I’ve done better,” Hansen said. “It was pretty windy, so two out of my six throws went out, but I was able to throw far enough to progress to CCS.”

To prepare, Hansen continued to train during the weeks leading up to CCS but took the day off on May 24 to ensure that she was completely rested. In practice, she focused on keeping up her speed in the ring and finishing her throw with power.

According to Singh, the team did not do as well as they hoped, since only a few members were able to advance to CCS. However, many were able to set personal records.

Although sophomore sprinter Emma Hsu did not qualify for SCVALS in an individual event and instead competed in the 4×100 relay, she said her team, consisting of Hsu, McGhee, junior Sasha Pickard and sophomore Alyssa Pinai, did better than they expected, placing eighth. She hopes for more individual success next year and a more connected team.

“We have a super young team, so we're hoping we'll all improve next year,” Hsu said. “Right now, our team has a lot of cliques and we rarely interact with other people, so I hope that next year, our team will be more like a family.”