Cougars shine at track invitational

A San Lorenzo Valley High School distance medley relay team, consisting of three freshmen and a sophomore, ran the 18th-fastest time in the nation this month.
The team of Abby Sherman, sophomore Claire McMillan, Jen Housek and Anna Maxwell finished fourth overall at the Arcadia Invitational track meet with a combined time of 12 minutes, 24.5 seconds.
The Arcadia Invite hosted more than 4,000 of the nation’s best track and field athletes from 600 schools in 28 states and four countries April 8 and 9 in Los Angeles. It is the largest track meet in the western United States.
The Cougar girls were not the only local team to run well at the invitational.
Though the boys 4-by-mile team was not invited, the team ended up running as a last-seeded scratch team. The four-man group of Landis MacMillan, Nick Hicks, Cody Johnson and Jacob Hicks finished with a strong time of 18:46, good enough to beat eight of the invited teams and finish 20th overall.
The boys distance medley team finished 18th overall with a combined time of 10:48.77.
In the individual events, sophomore Cody Johnson ran a personal-best time in the 800 meters, finishing second at 1:56.57. He crushed a 24-year-old school record and posted the third best time in the Central Coast Section this season.
Maxwell, a freshman, again turned heads as she finished second in her heat in the one-mile run in 5:02.55, the second fastest time in the CCS. The Stanford and Arcadia invitationals are the only events where SLV runs the traditional “mile.” Most meets replace it with a 1,600 meter race.
“For such a big event, we ran great,” SLV coach Rob Collins said. “I have to keep in mind that this is a very, very young team. I am basically going to these incredible, invitation-only track meets and doing very well with, basically, a frosh-soph track team.”