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Of all the high school sports affected by the pandemic-induced short seasons this spring, on first glance track and swimming would appear to be the biggest casualties. They are both progressive, cumulative sports with measurements objectified by clock or tape measure.
While improvement certainly takes place in all sports from beginning to conclusion of a season, in the clock sports there is a clear objective progression of personal bests as an individual increases through training their aerobic, cardiovascular and muscular capacity.
Also, there are none of the big invitationals elite athletes traditionally point towards. Instead, at this point, there are only a series of league meets to participate in and “have fun.”
Therefore, it was a bit of a shock at first glance to see the times turned in by local distance runners in their first meets of the season. Menlo School’s Kamran Murray turned in a triple of 2:01.55 in the 800, 4:25.31 in the 1,600 and 9:46.61 in the 3,200 at the first West Bay Athletic League meet. Oh, and he also ran a 54.5 leg on the 4×400 relay and did all four events in a two-hour span.
In that same WBAL meet Sacred Heart Prep’s Luci Lambert won the girls 400 (58.83) and 800 (2:16.68), very good early-season times in any year.
At Palo Alto’s Santa Clara Valley Athletic League meet with Los Gatos, the Vikings swept the first nine places in the boys 1,600, a jaw-dropping feat in any other year as Los Gatos is traditionally very strong in track and field. But in this one-of-a-kind season, the Los Gatos boys were apparently hit hard by the various forms of attrition in play as a result of the pandemic and multiple sports going on at the same time.
Freshman Grant Morgenfeld led the way with a time of 4:27.85, followed by Mateo Fesslmeier (4:29.45). All nine Paly runners were timed in 4:54 or better.
“Our distance group has really taken training to heart,’’ Palo Alto coach Michael Davidson said. “Away from school they’ve done some running and training on their own. They get together in small pods and have found it really feels good to get out and just run. They’re a good group of kids who push each other. I’m blessed to be bursting at the seams.’’
Morgenfeld came back to win the 3,200 in 9:40.26 as Paly swept the first seven places. Teammate Aleksei Seletskiy won the 800 in 1:59.15.
“He’s got a lot more left in him,’’ Davidson said of Morgenfeld. “He was out front all by himself.’’
Talk about running all alone, sophomore Elizabeth Fetter, in her first year of track (she was on the swimming team as a freshman), won the girls 1,600 by a margin of 39 seconds in a stunning time of 5:01.21. She doubled in the 3,200 with a winning time of 11:07.30. Second place was 12:30.09.
“She has a sub-4:50 in her in the (1,600) and sub-10:50 in the (3,200),’’ Davidson said. “She’s a phenomenal talent with a great attitude.’’
Sophomore Hillary Studdert also turned in a terrific time, winning the girls 800 in 2:14.76.
This crazy spring sports season actually helped distance runners turn in fast times right away as cross country concluded two weeks before track started, rather than the normal two months. So there was no time in between the two for conditioning to lag.
Times and marks in the sprints, jumps and throws were not nearly as impressive. Those events require more specialized training, in the weight room and with practice repetition, and are more negatively affected by the track season lasting only six weeks.
“This season has been really weird,’’ Davidson said. “Last week we had 12 sports going on at the same time. I’m getting emails constantly from kids saying I finished my other sport, can I come out?’’
Change of plans: Research campus to leave Menlo Park, make way for more housingJune 12, 2026 6:46 pm