Junior high track and field championships
Los Altos High’s stellar track and field program looks to get even better over the next few years with some youngsters moving up from the junior high ranks.
Two of these success stories are Rebecca Burnham and Katharine Hill, who both made tracks at the recent Santa Clara County Track and Field Meet in Gilroy. Egan’s Burnham set a record in the eighth grade 100-yard dash, and Blach’s Hill won the seventh grade high jump.
And if they follow in the footsteps of their older trackster siblings, Los Altos High should score big with these two and the many other local athletes who competed at the county meet.
Record-setter
Aside from winning the 100 in 11.22 seconds (the old mark was 11.3), Burnham took first in the long jump (16 feet, 5 inches) and placed second in the triple jump (34-4) and as part of the 440 relay (55.4) to help Egan notch 36 points and finish tied for first with Kennedy.
“Rebecca knew she had to get personal bests in every event (for us to win),” said Coach Sabrina Foss. “And that’s tough, but she did it. Up to this point in her career, it’s the hardest thing she’s had to do.”
Another difficult thing for Burnham and her fellow 440 relay runners – Heather Phillipe, Nisha Patel and Emily Fenner – was implementing a new style of hand-offs this year.
“They changed them to compete better,” said Foss, who explained that each girl grabbed the baton in a starting block-like position. “They took that and perfected it.”
In the relay, Egan was in seventh place when it came time for Burnham to run her anchor portion. After the hand-off, she was off and running into second place.
Top jumpers
Over at the seventh grade girls high and long jumps, respectively, Hill placed first with a 4-9, and Blach teammate Emily Allen leapt to first with a 15-7 1/2.
“They’re both very focused for seventh graders,” said Coach Pat Koren. “They’re really intense.”
Hill, who also runs the 880 and the mile, sprained her ankle prior to the league meet, but still came through with excellent jumps. She won the league title with a mark of 4-7, and improved to 4-9 a week later at the county competition; her county mark ties a Blach school record.
Egan crew
In boys action at the county meet for Egan, Andry Kane, Josh Rose and Andy Wiener finished in second through fourth places, respectively, in the “C” shot put competition. Kane hit a mark of 32-3, almost a foot better than his second-place finish in league.
And in the boys “A” competition, Johnny Chien took third in the shot (40-2), Ryan Evans placed third in the discus (116-11) and Ian Kenworthy pulled up to fourth in the hurdles (9.59). At the league meet, Evans tasted victory with a toss of 123-2 in the discus.
Coach Brian Sullivan said that both Chien and Evans are tough kids and benefited from training sessions with shot put coach Ray Girouard.
Two seventh grade relays also had good days and shaved some time off their personal bests. The 880 (consisting of Fran Centafani, Kelsey Alloo, Katie Sullivan and Bonnie Chen) took third with a 2:01.40, and the 440 (Centafani, Alloo, Chen and Diana Mejia) placed fourth in 55.59.
