Despite torrential rain and wind at the SCVAL track and field championship meet Saturday, several Los Altos and Mountain View High athletes qualified for the Central Coast Section meets later this month.
Los Altos track athlete Nathaniel Guillory, who will run for either San Jose State or UC Riverside next fall, won the boys 100 meters (11.04) and 200 meters (22.79) but used caution in the rainy conditions. Los Altos track and field co-coach Steph MacKenzie said Guillory set a goal of doing Division I track and has put in a lot of work during the off-season to make it happen. The low marks due to the rain will affect how SCVAL schools are seeded at Central Coast Section meets, affecting what lanes the runners will receive in future events.
“That’s the thing that concerns, especially the sprint coaches, when the weather is cold is you will get a pulled muscle, so Nathaniel just safely made it through,” MacKenzie said.
Discus throws also took place on Saturday but were affected by the bad weather. Sophomore Max Morelle won the shot put event for Los Altos for the boys and will move on to CCS. Sophomore Sam Hurst finished third in the boys 1600 to qualify for CCS, with athletes moving on to CCS if they finished in the top five Saturday.
For the Los Altos girls, Jasleen Sidhu placed third in the 1600 at 5:11.23, while Samantha Patel placed fourth at 5:11.65. Madeline Ross finished fifth in the 400, while Ananya Vaswani finished second in the 100 meters at 13:05 to qualify.
Lily Symon won the 800 at 2:17.19, while Emma Lewis got third at 2:19.88. Daniela Hughes finished second in the 200. Jasleen Sidhu finished fourth in the 3200, while Emily Soobrian and Lydia Anderson qualified through a CCS at-large berth.
The hurdles and jump events were moved from Saturday to Monday evening (after the Town Crier print deadline) for safety reasons, with MacKenzie hopeful that three long jumpers, three triple jumpers and two high jumpers will qualify.
It was a successful day for the Mountain View girls track and field team, with runner Hannah Rutherford winning the 400 at 59.55 and the 200 at 25:23. Clara Spiess won the 100 for the Spartans at 12.99 and finished fifth in the 200. Maya Eisenberg and Olivia Backholm finished in second and fifth, respectively, in the girls 1600 and 3200. Lilah Carter from Mountain View placed second in shot put and discus throw. Sophia Lew finished fifth in the high jump to qualify for CCS.
For the Mountain View boys, Grinell Longstreet won the 400, while Bryan Louie finished fifth to qualify for CCS. Eliot Li placed third in the 100 for the Spartans.
