Lynbrook may have been the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s most impressive team representative at the Willow Glen Track and Field Invitational in early March, but it was a Monta Vista sophomore who stole the individual spotlight.
While Lynbrook’s impressive showing included winning the boys varsity team title and placing fourth in the girls varsity, boys frosh-soph and girls frosh-soph divisions, Matador super soph Kelly Bishop was setting a school record in the 800 meters that placed her among the Central Coast Section’s top 100 all-time.
Bishop crossed the finish line in a sparkling time of 2:15.58, almost a full second ahead of runner-up Juliana Mount, a senior from Notre Dame.
“Kelly ran a good tactical race, being patient, stalking the leader, getting into a good position and making her final move at just the right time with just over 100 meters to go,” said Monta Vista coach Kirk Flatow. “As a fan, as well as a coach, this was a great race to watch.”
Bishop’s performance helped lift the Monta Vista girls to a seventh place finish in the varsity division with 30 points, just three behind sixth place Mountain View. Notre Dame captured the girls varsity team title followed by Christopher, Valley Christian and Lynbrook.
The Lynbrook boys, meanwhile, edged host Willow Glen 70-68 for the boys varsity crown. Jim Sussenguth, Andy Shen and Kevin Huang all captured firsts to lead the Vikings to the title.
Sussenguth won the 800-meter run in 2:01.47, and was followed across the finish line by teammates Shen, who took fourth in 2:02.07, and Justin Robison, who came in sixth in 2:04.35.
Sussenguth also teamed up with Shen, Reyjay Conner and Robison to win the 4×400 meter relay in 3:33.84, and combined with Conner, Kevin Dai and Chris Duggan to place sixth in the 4×100 meter relay in 45.75.
Shen took an individual first in the 400 in 51.87, while Huang bagged first in the long jump with a leap of 20-9.75.
Revanth Naguala chipped in with a third in the 3,200 (9:45.64) and a fifth in the 1,600 (4:33.67), and Dai claimed a second in the 300 hurdles (44.26). Robison added a fourth in the 1,600 (4:33.65), and Connor picked up a fourth in the high jump (5-8).
Monta Vista’s Rohan Choudhury captured a first in the 3,200 in 9:43.06, while Fremont’s Saul Scher nabbed a fourth in the shot put with a heave of 42-4.50.
In the girls varsity division, Cupertino’s Caroline Gee raced to a first in the 1,600 (5:11.43) and a second in the 3,200 (10:58.79), and teammate Anamika Ghosh took a third in the triple jump by soaring 34-4.
Lynbrook’s Julia Catolico, Claire Yuan, Evita Babin and Gianna Wu joined forces to win the 4×100 relay in 52.36. The Viking foursome of Babin, Rachel Kim, Anjali Pemmaraju and Anna Sussenguth bagged a second in the 4×400 relay in 4:29.82.
The Vikes also got a fourth-place effort from Katya Trushchankova in the triple jump (33-03) and a fifth from Gianna Wu in the 100 (13.25).
Fremont’s Annah Jones claimed third-place finishes in the 100 hurdles (17.20) and the 100-meter dash (12.92), in addition to a fourth in the 200 (26.93).
Madeleine Yip of Monta Vista nabbed a third in the 3,200 (11:56.24), and teammate Jenny Xu copped a second in the 1,600 (5:13.97).
K-Bell Classic
A week later at the 31st annual K-Bell Track Classic, Bishop ran second in the 1,600-meter run in 5:11.60 to lead the Monta Vista showing.
Homestead freshman Elena Kamas finished a solid third in 5:11.70 and was also fourth in the 800 in 2:22.14 to top a list of four Mustangs who placed in the meet.
Sophomore Lindsay Allen was third in the 3,200 in 11:19.98 with senior Leslie Tsai fourth in the 300 hurdles in 50.41 and sophomore Miranda Zinola sixth in the discus at 109-0.
Lynbrook junior Esther Ho ran third in the 100 hurdles in 17.15 and added a fifth in the long jump at 15-2.
In boys action, Lynbrook’s Robison was second in the 3,200 in 9:48.99 with Daniel Graves of Homestead running sixth in 10:07.88.
Shen raced to a third-place finish in the 800 in 2:00.82 with Conner fifth in the high jump at 5-8 and Huang fifth in the long jump at 20-9.
St. Francis meet
Track and field teams headed to Mountain View last weekend for the St. Francis Track and Field Invitational where Lynbrook’s Robison had himself quite a day.
The junior ran to a win in the 3,000 in 8:49.73 with teammate Revanth Nagurla fourth (9:10.35) and he also teamed with Nagurla, Sussenguth and Shen for a win in the distance medley relay in 10:33.10.
The Lynbrook foursome of Conner, Shen, Sussenguth and Jeffrey Lin added a fourth in the 4×400 relay (3:30.64).
Homestead sophomore Max Sawyer finished fifth in the mile in 4:32.67 with teammate Chris Reed sixth (4:35.87) and the Monta Vista quartet of Choudhury, Brent Mogensen, Chaitanya-Chatty Adiga and Emilio Torres-Gonzalez sixth in the distance medley relay (11:01.58).
Cupertino junior Jade Harrison was a standout in the girls competition, placing second in both the 100 in 12.33 and the 400 in 58.29.
Homestead’s Kamas was third in the mile in 5:08.73 with teammate Allen fourth in 5:11.77, and she also finished fifth in the 800 in 2:21.96.
Julia Chang of Monta Vista ended up sixth in the 3,000 (11:06.83) and the Monta Vista team of Bishop, Yip, Xu and Anella Palacpac won the distance medley relay (12:24.04).
Dual meet win
Led by another outstanding performance by Bishop, the Monta Vista girls defeated Santa Clara 69-58 in a Santa Clara Valley Athletic League El Camino Division dual meet last week.
In addition to winning the 800 in 2:23.3 and 400 in 1:03.7, Bishop also led off the winning 4×400 relay team, combining with Isabel La Plain, Yip and Xu to cross the finish line in 4:30.5.
Also posting firsts for the Matadors were Chang in the 1,600 (5:38.6), Parvathi Meyyappan in the 3,200 (12:22.1) and Sanja Bharadwaj in the high jump (4-6).
The win lifted Monta Vista’s league record to 2-1.
The Matador boys, on the other hand, slipped to 1-2 following their 77-50 loss to Santa Clara.
Picking up individual firsts for Monta Vista in the defeat were Choudhury in the 1,600 (4:39.0) and Rochish Ambati in the 400 (57.2).
