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April 30, 2009
Photo by Joe Hartman - Senior Krish Patel runs the final leg of the 4-by-800 meter relay at the Woody Wilson High School Classic at UC Davis on April 17. His 800m time was the fastest for the team at 1 minute, 59 seconds. The relay team consisted of Patel, seniors Chad Cose, Ranvir Dhillon, and junior Benjamin Rich. They broke the school record for that event and placed second at the meet.
By David Hoang
In the span of two and a half weeks, the boys track team broke two school records and defeated Newark Memorial, an accomplishment that has not happened in several years. The team set records in the distance medley relay (DMR) at the Arcadia Invitational and in the 4-by-800 meter (4x800m) relay at the Woody Wilson High School Classic. They are currently undefeated after beating Newark.
The Arcadia Invitational was held on April 10 and 11 at Arcadia High in Arcadia, CA. It was host to teams from 24 states and three different countries.
The DMR was run by seniors Ranvir Dhillon, Krish Patel, Chad Cose and junior Benjamin Rich. They set the new school record at 10 minutes, 35 seconds.
“Going into the race, I was just excited for them because it was a big meet, one of the biggest in the nation,” coach Ben Vose said. “They had an opportunity to go out there and just give it everything they had. We had a long road trip down to LA, which was fun. I wasn’t stressing out or anything at all.”
Dhillon, Patel, Cose, and Rich have been breaking the school DMR record all season long. Two weeks before Arcadia, they broke the record at the Dublin Distance Fiesta with a time of 10 minutes, 50 seconds. A week later at the Chabot Relays, the record would be broken again with a time of 10 minutes, 43 seconds.
At Arcadia, the team came in qualified in the twelfth position. They finished fourth out of 27 total teams.
Dhillon ran three laps to start the race for the team. Cose took the baton after Dhillon finished in ninth, and he moved up to sixth with his one lap sprint. Patel ran the next two laps and, in his final lap, was able to get the team up to second place. Rich finished the race off with one mile; he held the lead for a portion of the race, but fell back during the final seconds and finished fourth.
“It was good. It was a really physical meet because everyone wanted to win,” Dhillon said. “All the teams wanted to win; they were all in it. I tried my best just to get up to the front and Chad, Krish, and Ben moved us up throughout the race. Everyone ran a good race.”
Dhillon, Cose, and Rich all achieved personal best times at the meet. Dhillon ran his 1200 meter leg in 3 minutes, 17 seconds, Cose ran his 400 meter leg in 51 seconds, and Rich ran his 1600 meter leg in 4 minutes, 26 seconds. Patel ran a season best time of 2 minutes flat.
A week later on April 17 at UC Davis, the DMR team traveled north to compete at the Woody Wilson High School Classic in the 4x800m relay.
Two years prior to this race, the school’s 4x800m relay record was set at 8 minutes, 31 seconds. Cose, Rich, Dhillon, and Patel now hold the school record at 8 minutes, 5 seconds.
Coming into the race, the goal of the team was for each runner to individually finish under 2 minutes, 5 seconds. Cose started the race off with an unexpected 2 minutes, 1 second.
“We had Chad, a new 800 runner, run. He came out amazing,” Patel said.
Rich and Dhillon both finished with similar times to each other at 2 minutes, 2 seconds. Patel finished the last leg of the race and came in under 2 minutes with a time of 1 minute, 59 seconds.
The team finished second out of 20 teams.
“I knew that we were going to run fast, but I didn’t think that we were going to run that fast,” Vose said. “A few of the guys, Ranvir, Ben, and Chad, really surprised me with their times, how fast they ran. They were up in front and they did a good job.”
On April 22, the boys track team faced off with Newark Memorial. The team came out on top with a final score of 71-66.
The meet came down to the final event of the day: the 4-by-400 meter relay. Patel, Cose, senior Sean Randall, and junior Matthew Padilla ran this event.
“Going into it, I thought I was going to be really nervous, but I wasn’t nervous at all,” Vose said. “We put in a lot of hard work. If it was going to happen, it was going to happen. If not, they still ran well anyways.”
The boys will be looking to stay undefeated as they face Logan and Irvington in the next two weeks.
After that will be the MVAL playoffs and then the NCS playoffs.
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