May 12, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

It's a solid start for the postseason

by Keith Peters

For members of the Gunn and Palo Alto high track teams, the first steps have been taken toward a very important goal at the end of the season.

Both teams went through their paces last weekend at the SCVAL De Anza Division finals at Los Altos High, the first stop on the journey to the CIF State Championships June 4-5 at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento.

The pace, however, quickens this weekend at the SCVAL Qualifier at Los Gatos High beginning at 10 a.m. The top 16 performers from the De Anza and El Camino Division finals will compete, but only the top six will advance to the Central Coast Section semifinals at San Jose City College on May 22.

From there, the top eight move on to the CCS finals on May 28, also at SJCC, with the top three from the section finals qualifying for the state meet.

Which brings us back to the De Anza Division meet, where Palo Alto boys' coach Jason Fung saw good things across the board.

"I was surprised by how well everyone competed," Fung said of his athletes. "Many of them ran PRs. They know they can do it now."

That's important, of course, because the stakes are higher this week. Times and marks will have to improve, in order to reach the CCS semifinals.

Both Paly and Gunn had a number of fine efforts last Thursday at Los Altos. The Vikings took second in the boys' team race with 78 points behind Lynbrook's 113. Gunn was third with 71 1/2. On the girls' side, Los Gatos ran off with the title with 109 points while Paly was third with 80 and Gunn tied for fifth with 43.

Gunn senior Andrew Lipkin was the only local double winner, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact he was sick. After winning the 1,600 in 4:25.25, with teammate John McGee taking second, Lipkin felt the effects of a stomach virus and lost his lunch.

Once the 3,200 started, Lipkin fell back in the pack and appeared in jeopardy of perhaps not advancing.

"Since he was feeling so bad, he just wanted to hang back and qualify," said Gunn coach Ernie Lee. "But when he was near the front on the last lap, he just took off."

With less than 300 meters to go, Lipkin blew by the lead pack and raced home a clear winner in 9:46.72. His season best, by the way, is 9:26.19.

Lipkin was joined atop the victory stand by teammates Jonathan Nguyen, Derrick Brooks and Orlie Kapitulnik.

Nguyen got out quickly in the 300 intermediate hurdles and ran a clean race to win in 41.72. Brooks made up for disappointments in the 100 (fifth) and 200 (seventh) by winning the triple jump with a solid leap of 43-feet-10 inches.

Kapitulnik used a barely legal aiding wind of 1.9 meters per second (above 2.0 is wind-aided) to win the girls' 100 meters in a personal record of 12.44.

"More significantly," Lee said of the almost too-windy race, "it shows significant improvement from last year."

Kapitulnik came back in the 200 to finish second in 26.02.

For the Paly boys, Joseph Ashufta won the 110 high hurdles in 16.03. James McCluskey added a second in the discus and a third in the shot put (50-5) and Herrel Siller Jr. ran to a couple of PRs while taking third in the 800 (2:02.40) and third in the 3,200 (9:57.43). David Lefebvre was a strong second in the high hurdles while fellow junior Pierre Meloty-Kapella was third in the 100 (11.23) and fifth in the 200 (23.24), a race in which Lynbrook swept the top three places.

For the Paly girls, junior Katrina Zawojski won the long jump at 16-10 1/4, took second in the triple jump (34-3 1/2) and ran a leg on the first-place 400 relay team that clocked 49.78. The rest of the relay included Ranecia Fields, Katy Wanner and Ashley Gadson. Dami Wusu grabbed a victory in the shot put at 34-1.

Junior Tori Tyler added a pair of second places in the 1,600 (5:10.81) and 3,200 (11:05.91), setting the pace for eventual winner Marie Nguyen of Milpitas in both races.

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