Menlo-Atherton’s Evan Chopra wins CCS championship in boys’ 800 meters

Down the stretch, Chopra just kept increasing his lead en route to claiming the CCS championship for the boys’ 800 with an extraordinary time of 1 minute, 51.42 seconds.

The junior not only improved on his program record, which he originally set April 11 at the Arcadia Invitational, but ran the 11th fastest time in CCS history, and the second best among Peninsula Athletic League runners; only El Camino’s Yutaka Roberts has run it faster with a 1:51.04 mark in 2022.

Chopra, who has now won just four 800 races in his varsity career, and hadn’t won one since Arcadia — settling for second place May 9 at the PAL championships — was in a strange place running alone at the front of the middle-distance pack. Instead of putting his head down, though, he picked up his shoulders, exhibited pristine mechanics with his head held high down the stretch, and finished with a flourish.

Said Chopra of his thoughts down the stretch: “‘OK, I don’t know where these guys are, but it’s not like anything’s going to change even if I knew where they were. I’m just going to give it my all.’”

It was a taxing day for Chopra, who also ran the boys’ 1,600 earlier in the day, medaling with a fourth-place finish in 4:16.93. Bellarmine senior Stephen Sziebert took the 1,600 title in 4:09.69, followed by Menlo junior Henry Hauser in second (4:09.95), and Nueva senior Ryan Fitzpatrick in third (4:10.37).

“It’s definitely been tough running two races in a meet, and I’ve tried to manage that mostly by really only focusing on going hard in one race ,” Chopra said. “So, for league trials and finals, and even CCS trials, I was focused on going all-out in the [1,600] and just putting in enough to qualify and move on for the [800]. And then in finals, my plan was to switch that up, and then I could focus on the [800]. I think that was a good plan, and it worked out well for me.”

Fitzpatrick racking up miles

After the Nueva senior earned the CCS Division V boys’ cross country championship in the fall, Fitzpatrick went into something of a funk at the start of the track season. He opened the season with a fifth-place finish in the 1,600 at the Skyline Invitational, and settled for sixth in the 3,200 at the Don Green Invitational the following week.

It ain’t how you start, though. It’s how you finish. And with his three miles of work Saturday in Gilroy, the senior earned two medals, including the CCS championship in the boys’ 3,200 with a PR of 9:02.61, moving him into 29th all-time in CCS history.

“It’s really consistency, is the the name of the game,” Fitzpatrick said. “I really haven’t been at the top of my game this whole season. I struggled at the beginning. ... But I’ve had a lot of experience with tough races, and tough situations, and I was able to push through that, really commit to my training in the middle of the season, and get back to where I wanted to be at the right time.”

For the longest event of the day, the 3,200 came down to one of the tightest finishes. Fitzpatrick and Branham senior Alijah Murillo were running neck-and-neck down the stretch, with Fitzpatrick inching him out at the finish line by three one-hundredths of a second.

“I thought he got me at the finish, to be honest,” Fitzpatrick said. “I thought I saw him in front of me when I was crossing the line, but I got him by a tiny fraction.”

Carlmont girls’ 4x800 relay bound for state meet

The Carlmont girls entered Saturday’s CCS championship meet with a lofty mission, to deny mighty St. Francis the 4x800 relay title. The Scots came up short of that goal, but achieved quite the silver lining in punching their ticket to the CIF State Track & Field Championships this weekend in Clovis.

Carlmont’s foursome of Alexandra Farrell, Katelyn Elliott, Daniela Cuadros and Isabella Schuett took second place in 9:04.52, finishing back of St. Francis’ CCS championship time of 9:04.07. With only the top two relay teams earning a bid to the state meet, the second-place finish earns Cuadros, Carlmont’s lone senior, one heck of a road trip with her teammates to finish out her varsity career.

“I know, I’m excited,” Cuadros said. “It’s our last race together. So, it’s really bittersweet, but I’m really excited ... and I just can’t wait to race one more time with these girls.”

Carlmont leaned on the freshman Schuett to anchor the race, and she ran a similar leg as Elliott and Cuadros, making up a chunk of ground with her first lap to move ahead, only to fall off down the stretch of her second lap.

“I was just thinking I wanted to sprint as fast as I could,” Schuett said. “Like, I didn’t want to have anything left and anything to regret. So, I’m glad I tried my best.”

Reese Wagner, Lily Symon, Maya Wastie and Brinley Pickett were repping a St. Francis relay team that held the best 4x800 time all season.

“They’re just a really great team to compete against,” Elliott said. “I think they kind of push us to be our best. So, I’m grateful that they’re there. I went into that race just trying to do my best and trying to obviously get first, but obviously I couldn’t hold onto it in the end. But I think being in first place during the first portion of the race kind of pushed me to go faster and try to hold onto it.”

It was the first time this year Carlmont ran head-to-head with St. Francis.

“Going into it I just tried to run my own race,” Farrell said. “I always try to not think of other people when I’m running because it’s just me versus myself. If I try to race somebody else’s race, it’s just going to mess me up.”

Carlmont boys’ 4x800 runs PR, misses state cut

Daniel Choy, Nathan Kron, Landon Schaefer and Simon Gehrke rattled off a substantial PR of 7:47.27 in the boys’ 4x800 relay, but it was a 10th of a second shy of a state qualifier. The Scots settled for third place in the event, finishing back of Homestead’s second-place time of 7:47.17. Menlo took the CCS title in 7:46.26.

“At the end of the day I’m really proud of the team,” Gehrke said. “I think they’re really proud of themselves. We PR’d by 12 seconds or so, so even with that, and amazing race by everybody.”

Gehrke anchored the race, and got out to a blazing start. He led for much of his second lap, but was overtaken by Menlo’s Hauser and Homestead’s Joshua Williams down the stretch.

Carlmont’s two 4x800 teams enjoyed a profound connection this year, and the girls’ team, while still catching their collective breath from their second-place finish, were rooting for the Gentleman Scots big time during their race.

“Especially this year, compared to previous years, team spirit’s been much better, especially with the travel meets,” Choy said. “Just bonding with them more, especially bonding with them outside of the races. Seeing them compete well, take second, make it to state, it’s definitely really motivating. I’m happy for them.”