April 27, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Paly girls are on track for a successful season

by Keith Peters

The Palo Alto girls' track and field team has a little bit of everything, which is adding up to a lot this season.

Depth, experience, youthful talent and a handful of individual standouts has the Vikings undefeated heading into Thursday's final dual meet of the season against host Milpitas. Paly takes 5-0 record into the showdown, which can give the Vikings a head start toward a possible SCVAL championship when the league finals are held May 5 at Los Altos High.

The Vikings are coming off a busy and successful two days last week. The boys and girls swept Gunn in dual-meet action on Thursday, while the girls had a handful of standout efforts Friday at the 26th annual CCS Top 8 Invitational.

The highlight for Paly in Friday's meet, held in extremely windy conditions, was a school record of 56.93 by freshman Mia Lattanzi. That broke the 1996 mark of 58.18 by state meet competitor Colleen Wrenn.

Battling a strong headwind off the final turn and into the homestretch at Los Gatos High, Lattanzi held her form to rank No. 2 in the CCS this season. Section leader Libby Jenke of Menlo School won the race in a CCS-leading 56.41, a personal record for her.

Paly coach Paul Jones said Lattanzi's time was a complete surprise.

"She has very little track background," Jones said, "so everything is sort of an adventure."

Paly's Renata Cummins ran a personal best of 11:21.83 while finishing fourth in the 3,200 meters.

In other CCS Top 8 events, Jenke opened her impressive double with a personal best of 5:07.69 to finish second in the 1,600. Castilleja sophomore Tori Anthony was second in the girls' pole vault with a career best of 12-6. She was one of three vaulters to surpass the old meet record.

A night earlier, the Paly girls overwhelmed Gunn, 92-30, and the Viking boys handed the Titans a 79-48 defeat in the first night track and field home meet in Palo Alto history.

Paly senior Katrina Zawojski, who was playing in a club volleyball tournament in Reno on Friday and missed the Top 8 meet, was among the busiest athletes in the dual meet. She ran on the winning 400 relay (which ran unapposed), won the 200 in 26.22, captured the long jump at 17 feet and broke her own school record in the triple jump with a CCS-leading 38-1 1/2.

After reaching only 35-4 in her earlier attempts, Zawojski sped up her approach, hit her marks and was perfect off the board. That sets her up for even better things, perhaps even 18 feet in the long jump and 39 in the triple.

"I guess anything is possible," Zawojski said.

Paly's Elissa Chandler won the 100 hurdles in a season-best 16.19 and added a victory in the 300 hurdles in 48.01 to rank No. 3 in the CCS this season.

Gunn's Tori Tyler swept the mile (5:14.45) and two mile (10:56.42) to pace the Titans, who lost sprinter Orlie Kapitulnik to a possible hamstring injury in the 100.

In the boys' meet, Pierre Meloty-Kapella won the 100 (11.36), 200 (23.21) and ran legs on the winning 400 (44.85) and 1,600 (3:35.43) relay teams to lead the Vikings. Herrel Siller Jr. swept the mile (4:33.93) and two mile (10:12.37) and Chris Reade swept the hurdles as Paly won all 10 running events. At the Bay Area Top 8 Invitational at James Logan High in Fremont on Friday, Menlo-Atherton seniors Evan Anderson and Laurie Roberts each won individual titles. Anderson won the boys' 1,600 in 4:16.31, well off his career best of 4:11.41. Roberts equaled her season and career best of 5-8 to win the girls' high jump.

In a Private Schools Athletic League meet, Kramer Straube won the 1,600 (4:43.3) and David Jackson captured the 300 intermediate hurdles (44.2) to lead Sacred Heart Prep to the boys' team title.

Lacrosse

The Gunn girls (8-0, 9-0) not only romped to a 14-3 win over Pioneer behind four goals by senior Katie Dally, but the Titans received a big boost toward their first-ever regular season title in the Peninsula Athletic League.

Defending champ Menlo suffered a 7-6 loss to Leland the same afternoon, dropping the Knights to 6-3 in league with only five matches remaining before the league tournament semifinals begin May 10.

In boys' PAL action, Menlo (6-0, 14-1) will put first place on the line when the Knights visit Menlo-Atherton (6-1) Wednesday at 4 p.m. Menlo beat R.L. Stevenson, 9-6, before holding off St. Ignatius, 6-5, Saturday. Both were nonleague matches. Goalie Zach Carson had 17 saves in the win over SI while Matt Moone won a crucial faceoff with less than 34 seconds remaining and then ran out the clock.

Swimming

The Palo Alto boys and girls can wrap up undefeated dual-meet seasons on Thursday when the Vikings visit Mountain View at 3 p.m. The Viking teams come in both 5-0 in the De Anza Division (7-0 overall).

Edward Morrison swam a season-best 54.98 to win the 100 fly, won the 500 free and swam legs on the winning 200 and 400 free relays as the Paly boys swamped host Saratoga, 114-56 last week. The Viking girls dunked Saratoga, 123-65, with senior Monika Friedman clocking the No. 2 time in CCS with a 1:56.34 in the 200 free. She also won the 100 fly in a season-best 58.28. Freshman Liv Jensen moved among the CCS leaders in the 50 free (24.76) and 500 free (5:15.45) while sophomore Louisa Zuo (200 IM, 100 back) also had a solid meet.

The Paly girls also swam away with the team title of the Menlo Relays on Saturday, holding off second-place Menlo by three points in the all-relay meet.

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