Despite uncertain season, track coaches remain hopeful

Members of the track team volunteer at the Santa Cruz Half Marathon on March 1, 2020.

Head Coach: Archie Ljepava and Ian Tippetts

Recap: The season was shut down the day of their first meet.

Key Matchups: None

Star Players: senior thrower Luke Edwards; senior distance runner Niyanth Rao; junior distance runner Harrison Dance; junior sprinter and jumper Ashna Krishnamurthy; junior distance runner Amoli Vanavadiya; sophomore distance runners Elizabeth Stoiber, Elsa Blom, and Isha Goswami; sophomore distance runner and thrower Mika Tippetts

Key losses to graduation: sprinters Alex Taylor, Jack Kibort, Emma Hsu and Alice Lin; distance runners Kole Tippetts and Shivam Verma; throwers Will Siefert and Alexandra White

League: El Camino Division; The track team has six meets starting with one against Mountain View on April 15. Other opponents include Santa Clara, Fremont, Wilcox, Monta Vista and Cupertino.

Prognosis:

When the track season abruptly ended last March, the coaches’ priority for this year changed to simply “get out there and compete,” assistant coach Kathy Tippetts said. 

“Due to COVID-19 and school sports being split into three short seasons, we’re going to lose [potential] athletes,” she said. “We just want to get in some meets before the end of the season.”

The season begins on April 5, with conference games on April 15 against Mountain View, April 29 against Santa Clara, May 6 against Fremont, May 13 with Wilcox, May 20 with Monta Vista, and ending on May 27 with Cupertino.

As practices and meets start kicking in, the head coaches are enthusiastic for a fun, albeit shorter, track schedule, especially because of a significant loss of players to graduation.

“The coaches are looking forward to having a season,” Tippetts said. “Getting these athletes out and back in shape is the main goal for the year.”