Galileo’s track runners made many podiums and personal records for this year’s All City Trials and Finals, with Sr. Noelle K. and the Varsity Boys 4×800 qualifying for and running at State. All City is always split between Trials on May 11th, the preliminary races, where being in the top places gets them into Finals, on May 18th.
Trials saw a massive amount of personal records broken in short distance with Senior Alan T., Sophomore Willie J., Freshmen Maxwell W., Freshman Meleshia S., Sophomore Yujing D., Freshman Pui H., and Freshman Livia L. all breaking their own personal records in the 100m, as well as Junior Giovanni S. and Sophmore Saoirse C. breaking PRs in both their 100m and 200m races, and Sophomore Trystan S. in his 200m and 400m races. Also on the day of trials was finals for Frosh/soph field events where Sophomore Abby H. impressively won two gold medals in both Discus and Shotput. In the Field events Galileo also got victory with Seniors Marvin C. and Nelson L. placing 2nd and 3rd respectively for high jump. Sophomore Willie J. placed first in the 110m hurdles and Sophomore Madeline K. won first in the 300m hurdles finals, both breaking their own personal records.
On the day of Finals, the team won in total over 15 podium medals and many qualifications for states. The relays got many top placements, with the varsity boys and girls 4x400m, Frosh/soph boys 4x800m, and the Frosh/Soph girls 4x100m all getting 3rd on the podium, while the girls varsity 4x800m relay placed 2nd. Most notably, the boys varsity 4×800 –consisting of Juniors Georges B. and Nico R. and Seniors Jackson V. and Dario G.– won first place with a time of 8:06.09, qualifying them for state a second time in a row and breaking the school record set by them last year by over 6 seconds.
Senior Noelle K., despite having iron-level related issues affecting her performance, got 2nd in the 1600m and 1st in the 3200m, qualifying her for state. Although frustrated with the problems affecting her running condition and disappointed by the times she got, Noelle still enjoyed her last All City. “My races at All City did not go as planned, I think it just made me realize goals are great but what’s really important is the day to day training and learning along the way. The 4x800m was really fun and I’m really happy with that because I ran a personal best on my leg but at finals things definitely did not go to plan. I was really frustrated because I know I could have ran faster.“
Senior Dario G. got 3rd in the 3200m and qualified for state with his 1st place in the 1600m. He says, “I am very happy with my all city races, it’s hard to complain about two gold medals. I am a bit disappointed with only getting 3rd in the 3200 but it was still a great race and I ran a personal best.” Junior Nico R. won the Boys varsity 800m down to the millisecond with a close time of 2:00.130 to the 2nd place Academy runner with a time of 2:00.129, and qualified for state.
State took place on Friday and Saturday May 24-25 in Clovis, 3 hours from San Francisco, with some successful races. Running were the 4x800m Boys varsity team and Noelle. The 4x800m placed 14th with a decent time of 8:09.8. Dario also ran the 1600m, getting a time of 4:35, and Nico PRed in his 800m with a time of 1:57.81. Noelle raced in the 1600m and already holding the school record in the 3200m, set it even higher getting a time of 11:24.18.
This year the team is losing many members who are graduating. Senior Niki L. recalls, “I really enjoyed this track season. I worked really hard with the encouragement of everyone on the team. I am a little sad to leave, but I know that it most likely wont be the last time I see them.” Senior Dario says, “Obviously I am sad leaving the team because it has been a big part of my life the last 3 years. However I know that we have many great juniors who will step up next year and help continue to make it a great community.” Noelle expresses, “Its definitely bittersweet because obviously I know this can’t be where I am forever, but its definitely sad to move on from this community and these people. I just know I’m never going to have this again but I’m really happy with my years here.”
