Menlo-Atherton relay team shines in 4x1600 at Arcadia Invitational

Running in the novelty 4x1600-meter girls’ relay, M-A’s distance team topped the podium in dominant fashion, with the anchor leg Olesen hitting the tape for a time of 21 minutes, 17.54 seconds. The time was over 17 seconds better than second-place Saugus-Santa Clarita.

“That they did really well — I don’t want to say we were shocked — but it was exciting,” M-

A head coach Aisha Swayzer said. “They’ve been working really hard for it … and they wanted to do something special.”

At last Wednesday’s three-team Peninsula Athletic League dual meet at Mills, the 4x1600 hopefuls tapered their performances in preparation for Friday night’s event in Arcadia. Olesen, Pflaum and Pilette competed in the girls’ 1600, placing second-, third- and fourth-place, respectively, while drafting each other to perfection, all three finishing within five one-hundredths of a second of one another.

This is a product of running as a team since returning from the pandemic, as the four have been training partners consistently since Pflaum, Rehkopf and Olesen arrived at M-A as freshmen.

“They train together year-round for the last two years, so I think that had a huge, huge impact on how well they did,” Swayzer said.

With each runner taking on the equivalent of a mile in the Arcadia relay, Pilette ran with the front of the pack and handed off the baton in third place. Pflaum then exploded into first place and built a 100-meter lead by the midway point of the race. Rehkopf maintained the lead and passed the baton to Olesen with plenty of breathing room.

“[Rehkopf] was running alone most of the race,” Swayzer said. “Then when Tatum got it, the girl in second started to close in on her a little bit, but by the last two laps she just kind of took off … turned on her 800-meter speed.”

The 4x1600 relay is unique to the Arcadia Invite, as it is not run at any other California Interscholastic Federation meets. M-A’s distance relay team will now turn its focus to the 4x800 relay, a new event on the itinerary for the PAL championships, the Central Coast Section championships, and the state championship meet.

M-A holds the sixth-best time in the 4x800 girls’ relay in the CCS this season, with a time of 10:15.75 ran by Pflaum, Olesen, Katherine Lorenz and Sofia Melani.

The M-A distance runners are being coached by John Hale this season, a veteran coach of approximately 20 years with the program. He has worked with Eric Wilmurt, current M-A cross-country coach, through that time, but took over the distance department with the track team this season as Wilmurt opted to coach at Hillsdale, where his daughter Kira is a senior with the track team.

The best CCS time in the 4x800 this season is nearly a minute better than M-A, with Palo Alto recording a 9:18.22 in the event in Arcadia.

Swayzer said the benefit of exceling in the 4x1600 is it gives the team a taste of victory — something they will be shooting for in the 4x800 this postseason.

“I think it builds their confidence going into league championships, and then going into CCS and state,” Swayzer said.

Olesen also made school history in Arcadia, running the girls’ 800 in 2:11.14, a new M-A record, Saturday.

Menlo School also enjoyed a standout performance in Arcadia, with the boys’ 4x800 relay team taking second-place. Justin Pretre, Landon Pretre, Will Hauser and Aiden Deffener, recorded a time of 7:47.23, which set a new Menlo program record and stands as the best time in CCS this season. Justin Pretre also placed third in the boys’ 1600 with a program-record 4:13.42.