Inspired by her performance in the preliminaries a day earlier, Mountain View High’s Hannah Rutherford went into the girls 400-meter dash finals feeling good about her chances of earning a medal at the state track and field championships.
“That gave me a lot of confidence going into finals,” the sophomore said of running a personal-best 54.55 seconds to take third in the prelims. “It gave me a new gear, and I pushed harder than before.”
Rutherford didn’t run quite as fast, but her time (54.79) was still more than enough to earn a spot on the podium. She finished fourth in the event (the top nine receive medals) May 27 at Buchanan High in Clovis.
Last year, Rutherford placed 12th in the prelims, three spots shy of qualifying for the finals. That was still the best any Mountain View High athlete had ever done at state – until now.
“I didn’t perform that well last year. My experience this year helped me plan a race strategy,” said Rutherford, who ran in competitive meets such as the Stanford and Arcadia invitationals prior to the postseason. “I didn’t have any expectations last year (at state). I was really nervous, I hadn’t lost a race, and I held back too much.”
There was no holding back this year. Rutherford bolted out of the blocks.
“I got off to a pretty good start,” she said. “I was trying to make sure no one got too far away from me.”
The top three girls ran the race in under 53 seconds, but Rutherford was the only other participant to finish in under 55 seconds.
Rutherford also competed in the 200 dash at state but missed the finals by three spots. However, her 12th-place time of 24.67 in the trials was close to her best wind-legal time (24.55).
“That’s the fastest I’ve run (the 200) after running the 400,” she said. “It takes a toll running both; it’s hard on the body.”
LA’s Fagin finishes 8th in boys long jump
Los Altos High’s Zach Fagin advanced to the finals in one of his three events at state, the boys long jump, and earned a medal by placing eighth.
“I’m happy to get a medal,” the senior said. “I’ll remember that for the rest of my life.”
Fagin’s eighth-place leap of 22 feet, 8.75 inches matched his best mark in the prelims the day before, when he tied for 10th.
“It’s good to be consistent,” Fagin said.
He placed 18th in the high jump prelims, clearing the starting height.
“It was a pretty tough event for lot of us because we started at 6-3, and some us have never made that our whole life. We usually start at 5-8 or 5-9,” said Fagin, battling a back injury. “But I’m not too upset about it. I’m happy to get a mark and clear one of the heights.”
Fagin also ran on the Eagles’ 4×100 relay, which placed 11th in the prelims with a 41.92.
“Nothing went wrong – we ran a good race,” said Fagin, who teamed with Ata Sen, Leo Goebel and Nathaniel Guillory. “We were close to our best time but not quite there.”
MV’s Markelz medals in 3,200
Mountain View senior Evan Markelz also returned from Clovis with a medal, finishing eighth in the boys 3,200 run with a personal-best 9:01.09.
“While he wanted to break nine minutes in this race, he is very pleased with his new PR and taking home a state championship medal,” Spartans coach Jonathan Hubbs said.
St. Francis relay sets record
In what St. Francis coach Phil Pompei called “the highlight of the meet for us,” the Lancers’ girls 4×800 relay took third in the finals with a 9:04.03. The time set by Katie Mullane, Hinako Yamamoto, Anna Fawcett and Sabrina Zanetto is a CCS record.
Zanetto competed in the 800 run as well. She took third in the trials (2:12.44) and 11th in the finals (2:12.32).
More Eagles make finals
The Los Altos girls 4×800 relay placed ninth in the finals, nabbing the last medal. The team of Maddy Randall, Emma Beedon, Sami Patel and Emma Lewis ran a 9:21.02.
Los Altos had two girls in the 3,200 finals, in which Lauren Soobrian placed 13th (10:46.57) and Jasleen Sidhu was 16th (10:53.31).
Senior Soobrian “had a great start,” Eagles co-head coach Steph MacKenzie said, but a lingering hamstring injury caused her to limp through the last mile.
Junior Sidhu also ran in the 1,600 finals, thanks to a personal-record 4:54.36 in the prelims that was good for 12th. She finished in the same spot in the finals by running a 4:54.36.
Louie dominates para events
Los Altos senior Brandon Louie won the 100 and 200 para races, the mixed 400 para and placed third in the boys shot put para. He set personal records in all four events.
