Winter Mile Time Trial Results

San Jose, CA - The "Winter Mile" has turned into a tradition of sorts.  Held the week following the last meet of the year the time trial run, which began as a fun low-key way to test fitness at the end of the season, has blossomed into an extravaganza of personal bests.

It was a small group on a day that saw temperatures much more hospitable to running fast than what they've experienced in recent weeks. Winter is coming and the 60 degree temperatures are a welcome change from the mild 80 degrees just the week before.  The cooler temperatures seemed to energize the handful of runners on the starting line.

There's no starter or official timing system here.  Just coach with his watch and the commands of "ready-go." And off they went. Sam Cuevas, Cameron Lockard and Joe Renati ran in a pack all dipping under the 5 min mark. Both Cuevas and Lockard bettered their time from last year's time trial.  Freshman Jonathan Pappas rnearly matched his best time and was followed by a slew of personal bests.

"I am really happy with my time as it is a huge PR," Freshman Kaden Tang said after the race. "But I am still not entirely happy because I really wanted to break 6 min!"

In the girls race Mackenzie Thomas was dialed in and smashed her lifetime best by more than 15 seconds. The sophomore ran 5:25 which is one of the all-time best mile performances in school history... And it is not even track season! Hr splits of 80, 82, 82, 81 showed pose and perfect pacing from Thomas, a swimmer in the spring season. She is #11 all-time in school history.

Sophia Patterson was stellar running a personal best 5:43. Despite rushing to the track from an appointment, she hurried though her warm-up and ran in trainers making the run even more impressive. Camille Reed was next in 6:07. An impressive performance for only coming back from injury the a few weeks ago.

UPDATE: Winter Mile #2
Wednesday post state meet Jordan Hahn lined up for her try at the Winter mile. Joining her was Sophia Patterson looking for another shot following the previous attempt that was rushed and run in trainers.  As rain began to fall the run started with a quick pace with Hahn and Patterson coming through 400 meters in 80.7 seconds. Patterson went to work in the rain running the middle 800 in 2:47 to pass 1200 in 4:08. Closing the final 400 in 83 second she finished in 5:31, a new personal best of 12 seconds from the week earlier and an improvement of 22 second over her best last spring.

Jordan Hahn was coming off the track meet and had a tough time getting going in the cold rain. Still the freshman held on to come through in 5:53, a track personal best of 5 seconds!

Valley Christian Team Results:

4:50.3	Sam Cuevas		5:25.5	Mackenzie Thomas
4:53.0	Cameron Lockard		5:31.7	Sophia Patterson
4:57.9	Joe Renati		5:53.2	Jordan Hahn
5:25.3 5:40.2 5:48.5	Jonathan Pappas Ragav Saran Jack Adamson		6:07.6	Camille Reed
5:51.3 6:02.9	Coach Hamilton Kaden Tang
6:04.7 6:17.8 7:05.3	Zach Mullis Wesley Liao Brayden Chipman