By: Nelson Kramer
Local News Editor
As the track and field season comes to a close, athletes who have made it this far are preparing for states hosted by the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) in Clovis. This season, Los Gatos High School athletes made significant achievements at Arcadia, CCS, and invitationals.
Sophomore Kai Jordan is new to the Los Gatos High School Track and Field team, having moved from Rancho Cotate High School in Santa Rosa. He has been running track since 8th grade, first getting into running through his dad, who used to run track. Jordan commented on the significant improvements he has made this year due to the more individual coaching he has had this season from the sprint coach. This year, Jordan competed in the entire list of sprint events, running the 100, 200, and 400-meter sprints, along with both the 4×100-meter relay and the 4×400 relay. One of this season’s highlights for him was running in the Arcadia Invitational, and although he acknowledged some challenges along the way, he enjoyed the experience of getting to run there. When asked about other invitationals, he commented, “that’s where I have my best performances because the competition is really good, and for the relays we’ve been competing really well in CCS. For my individual [events] I have been P.R.’ing every time I get to an invitational.”
Freshman Madison Kohli, started her track and field career in seventh grade right as school started to transfer back into full in-person learning. The multi-sport athlete competes on the Los Gatos High School Varsity girls soccer team in the winter and runs on the track team in the spring. When asked about the successes of this season, Kohli replied, “It’s going really well. We made it to CCS championships [May 17] for our 4×400 [relay] and I made it in the 400, and 200 [meter races]. So we are hoping to go to state for the 4×400 and the season has just overall gone super well.” Kohli and her relay team ended up placing first in the CCS championships and now they are off to states. Kohli’s favorite event is the 400 meter even though it’s not easy to run; It’s one of her best events as it keeps her motivated to see the good times she gets. Although Kohli has a lot of time to decide, she remarked on how amazing it would be to run track in college. Kohli is waiting to see where both sports will take her throughout her high school career.
Even though most of the team has finished up their season, these two athletes and many more continue their push to the finish line. After the CCS Championships comes States where Los Gatos has some promising athletes and relay teams hoping for their chance to run and place well in the standings. The track team has had a lot of amazing talented athletes throughout each grade this year make sure to keep up with Los Gatos High School’s rising freshman and sophomore as they continue to crush it for years to come.