Monte Vista junior Natalia McGowan won the 200-meter dash, setting a meet record in the process.
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LIVERMORE -- With standout senior Cate Peters down at the Mt. San Antonio Relays for the weekend, the Granada Distance & Sprint Festival was the perfect time for a pair of other Monte Vista High School runners to shine.
Cate Miller, a sophomore, dropped her personal-best by two seconds in winning the girls 400 meters on Saturday, coming home in 57.30 seconds. Behind her in second, also in a personal-best, was junior teammate Natalia McGowan in 59.16.
McGowan then came back to win the 200 in 25.74, which was not only a PR, it broke the meet record of 26.39 set by Alhambra's Desie Armstrong a year ago.
"I'm very happy with the result," McGowan said of the 200. "I'm very happy. I've been working really hard towards it. I PR'd in the (400) too, but I think the (200) definitely felt better."
The event at Granada High School (NC) drew more than 50 schools from the North Coast, Central Coast, Oakland, San Francisco, and Sac-Joaquin sections and is structured for distances in the cool of the morning transitioning to sprints in the warmth of the afternoon with field events throughout the day.
Miller had been running similar splits (57s) in her legs on the Mustangs very strong 1600 relay team, but breaking her individual PR was something she was excited to get a chance to do.
"I really try to focus on my block starts," Miller said. "Because I know if I get out strong in the first 100, the rest of the race will follow through. When I got to the 200, I tried to gradually increase my speed so I wouldn't die too hard at the end. And I was able to finish through strong.
"Because we've been doing so many relays, my time was 59.1 before. And I've been splitting lower than that in all of my relays, but today, to really come and execute my time and get my own personal time, that was really rewarding."
Miller, McGowan, Peters and Bella Moriyama have been putting together a strong season in the 1600 relay and the Stanford-bound Peters is one of the top 400-800 runners in the state.
"The whole season so far has been going great for my relay team," Miller said. "And me on my own.
But my relay team has really been killing it. I'm honestly really excited for the rest of the season knowing that I accomplished my main goal with my 400 time. Now that I've accomplished that, I feel like I can accomplish so much more."
Said McGowan, "It feels like it just started. But I'm seeing my progress. Definitely the end of the season should be my peak. I'm excited to see what's next."
Campolindo (NC) senior Garret Nelson also set a meet record in the boys 200. He ran 22.35 to break the old mark of 22.49, set last year by De La Salle's Chukwunonso Udeh. It wasn't a PR for Nelson, but he was happy with his efforts.
"I feel I got out pretty well," he said. "My current PR is 22-flat so I'd really like to get to 21."
Nelson was second in the 200 to his teammate Josh Myers, 10.98-11.02. Myers was second in the 200 in 22.68.
"The start was a little off," Myers said of his 100. "My buildup was alright. Once I got to that 50 mark, I felt like I was ready to go."
Myers said he has one goal - to make it to the California Interscholastic Federation championships at the end of May at Buchanan HS in Clovis.
"I need to make it to state," he said. "That's the goal. So, hopefully we'll get there. I'm going to need to be at that 10.5-10.6 range."
A pair of meet records were also set in the 800s. Adeline Johnson, a senior at Branson (NC), set the girls mark at 2:16.13 and Alex Lamoureux, a senior at College Park (NC), set the boys mark at 1:55.59.
Amador Valley (CC) senior Erin Brown broke two meet records in the throws. She won the shot put at 37 feet, six inches, and broke the discus mark with a throw of 126-9. James Logan (NC) senior Ian Gammal also swept the throws, setting a meet record of 53-10.50 in the shot put and throwing the discus 147-8 (alas not a meet record).
James Logan freshman Essence Anderson-Brown won the 100 in 12.63, with fellow freshman India Harvey from San Ramon Valley (NC) second in 12.99. Anderson-Brown came back to finish third in the 200 in 26.34.
"I feel good," Anderson-Brown said after the 100. "I did way more better with my blocks because I was practicing it."
Anderson-Brown almost hit her personal-best of 12.59. She'd like to take that way down by the end of the season.
"Every time you PR, you have to try to PR again," she said. "By the end of the season, I'm going to try to go for a 12.1. You've got to work on your form before you can run faster."
Foothill (NC) junior Alisia Xu won the girls 100 hurdles in 16.56. Lowell (SF) senior Jacqueline Holman won the girls 3200 in 11:26.17. Abby Stein, a sophomore at Granada, took the girls 1600 in 5:04.77.
Granada junior Eshaan Singh won the boys 3,200 in 9:26.12 while his teammate, senior Dheeraj Gurusamy took the boys 1,600 in 4:16.13.
Photos by Jennifer Koziel
Damin Esper is a Bay Area-based freelance writer and a regular contributor to MileSplit