Boys’ Track: Team experiences success in recent meets

The boys’ varsity track team has experienced a wealth of success, starting the season undefeated with wins in all three of their past dual meets against Homestead on March 14, Santa Clara on March 20 and Fremont on March 25. All of these victories have come in the lower El Camino League after the team struggled in the upper De Anza League last year.

“The training regiment that the coaches have put together has been effective,” said junior Rohith Krishna, who runs the 800m, 1600m, and 3200m distance events. “The first few meets were great for seeing where we were at and what specific skills we need to work on for the rest of the season.”

This year, the team is strong in both short- and long-distance events.

Star sprinter senior Travis Stokes placed first in the 200m and 400m, while Eric Ringsrud placed first in the 100m, both contributed greatly to the team consistently. Ringsrud also placed first in the high jump and long jump events.

“The varsity boys’ team is really good this year,” Ringsrud said. “I have been able to undefeated in all the events I’ve ran so far.” 

Senior Clark Wang shined in the hurdles events, placing first in both the 110m and 300m hurdles events against Homestead and in the 300m hurdles event against Santa Clara. 

According to head coach Archie Ljepava, Wang even broke a school record in the 400m hurdles, running the race in 61.68 seconds during the Cupertino/De Anza Invitational on March 22.

Additionally, both the 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams, consisting of Ringsrud, Stokes, Wang, and senior Benjamin Glasstone in the 4x100m relay and Ringsrud, Stokes, Glasstone, and star distance runner junior Steven Sum in the 4×400 relay, respectively, placed first.

In distance events, senior Drew Bryan, juniors Andrew Harter and Sum and sophomores Kevin Duong-Le and Stephen Law excelled in their races, consistently scoring points for the team.

“You can honestly see people improving and our practices are paying off,” sophomore distance runner Stephen Law said.

Krishna said coaches have been working with individual athletes during practices and meets to improve their skills.

“One overall goal of [Ljepava] is to improve the diversity of events we participate in,” Krishna said. “If we can have people competing equally in all events we might be able to have more competitive success.”