When all was said and done at the 2015 Santa Clara Valley Athletic League track and field championship meet last week, the girls from Cupertino finished a fairly distant second to the powerful, first-place Los Gatos Wildcats.
But if not for the dazzling performances of two individuals–junior Jade Harrison and freshman Caroline Gee–the Pioneers would have finished no better than ninth among the league’s 14 teams.
While Los Gatos was running away with the team title by piling up 108 points, Cupertino was its closest competitor with 63 points, 46 of which were courtesy of the Pioneers’ brilliant tandem of Harrison and Gee.
Together the talented Cupertino underclassmen accounted for three individual firsts and a pair of individual seconds.
Harrison was responsible for 28 team points by winning both the 100- and 200-meter dashes and taking second in the 400. The Cupertino speedster took the 100 in 12.26, edging runner-up Rachael Estell of Mountain View by a tenth of a second. In the 200, Harrison’s time of 24.91 was more than a second faster than Estell, who again came in second. Wilcox’s D’Airrien Jackson won the 400 in 56.28 with Harrison right behind her at 56.91.
After finishing second in 5:03.67 to Gunn’s Gillian Meeks in the 1,600, Gee reversed the tables on the Titans’ outstanding junior by winning the 3,200 in 10:54.12, which was nearly four full seconds better than her meet record time at the SCVAL divisionals a week earlier.
The remainder of Cupertino’s team points were the result of second-place finishes by senior Anamika Ghosh and junior Solin Piearcy, and a sixth-place showing by the 4×400 relay team. Ghosh was second to Los Gatos’ Caice Lanovaz in the triple jump with a leap of 36-02.75, while Piearcy was runner-up to the Wildcats’ Melina Moore in the shot put with a heave of 34-6.25. Piearcy also came in seventh in the high jump with a 4-10 effort.
Also performing well in the meet for Cupertino were Brittany Perrier, who took eighth in the 300 meter hurdles, and Valentina Zamarian, who was eighth in the high jump.
Homestead finished ninth in the team standings with 17 points, just one ahead of 10th-place Monta Vista.
Leading the way for the Mustangs were sophomore Miranda Zinola, who copped a third in the discus with a toss of 109-2, and freshman Elena Kamas, who bagged a fourth in the 1,600 in 5:05.02 and a sixth in the 800 in 2:22.62.
Eleni Reynolds, a senior, added a fourth in the 200 in 26.45 and an eighth in the 100 in 12.81. Sophomore Lindsay Allen chipped in with a fifth in the 3,200 in 11:19.78 and a seventh in the 1,600 in 5:09.48.
As she has all season, sophomore Kelly Bishop paced the Monta Vista effort, winning the 800 in 2:20.11 and finishing fifth in the 1,600 in 5:07.29.
The Mats’ only other team points came from senior Sanjna Bharadwaj, who took fourth in the high jump at 5-0.
Fremont, which came in 11th in the team standings, was paced by senior Sabina Dayal, who claimed a third in the triple jump and sixth in the long jump with respective leaps of 34-10.75 and 16-4.
Junior Annah Jones finished fifth in the 100 in 12.56 and added an eighth in the 100 hurdles in 16.46, while junior Jaqueleine Esca picked up a fourth in the 800 in 2:21.87.
Lynbrook rounded out the field in 14th. Junior Katya Trushchankov captured a fifth in the triple jump at 34-7.75 as did the 4×100 relay team in 50.43, while senior Gianna Wu (12.61 in the 100) and juniors Evita Babin (1:00.96 in the 400) and Esther Ho (31-11.25 in the shot put) each chipped in with a sixth for the Firebirds.
Los Gatos also captured the boys championship, edging second-place Los Altos 89-80. Milpitas (70), Palo Alto (56) and Wilcox (43) rounded out the top five.
Lynbrook finished sixth, eight points behind Wilcox.
Junior Reyjay Conner paced the Vikings with a second in the 200 in 22.99 and a fourth in the 100 in 11.37.
Junior Justin Robison garnered a second in the 3,200 in 9:26.75, while senior Andy Shen and sophomore Tarab Ansari added fourths in the 800 and the discus, respectively. Shen posted a time of 2:00.16 and Ansari uncorked a toss of 137-2.
Rounding out Lynbrook’s team scoring were junior Jim Suyssenguth, who finished fifth in the 400 in 51.78; the 4×400 relay team, which garnered a fourth in 3:27.42; and the 4×100 relay team, which placed sixth in 44.66. Just missing points were senior Revanth Nagurla, who was seventh in the 3,200 in 9:42.57, and senior Joshua Yuan, who was eighth in the triple jump at 38-4.50.
Cupertino junior Spencer Mills was fourth in the 400 in 51.64 and fifth in the 200 in 23.09 as the Pioneers finished 11th in the team standings. Freshman Alexander Bruckhau added a fifth in the long jump at 20-2.5.
Junior Kento Takahashi hurled the discus 138-5 to capture a third, accounting for Homestead’s only points as the Mustangs came in 12th, just ahead of last-place Monta Vista.
Collecting eighths for the Mustangs were seniors Tim Stoddard in the 200 in 23.46, and Joey Gronovius in the 3,200 in 9:42.97.
Monta Vista’s only points were earned by senior Rohan Choudhury, who garnered a fifth in the 3,200 in 9:38.79, and junior James Migdal, who took sixth in the high jump at 5-10. Junior Brent Mogensen came in eighth in the 1,600 in 4:36.63.
