The VHS track & Field team sets new records at Mt. SAC Invitational

From April 19 to 20, VHS Track & Field team traveled to compete in the 64th Mt. SAC (San Antonio College) Invitational in Walnut, CA. They secured three national records over the course of two days, including the high school national records in the outdoor mile time and 1,600 distance medley relay.

Sadie Englehardt ‘25 took part in breaking all three records. On April 19, Englehardt broke the outdoor mile time record with a 4:31.72 time. Englehardt’s race was against the clock as she tried to beat the six year old record of 4:33.87 held by New York’s Katelyn Tuhoy. Her new record is the highest in the country amongst girls at the high school level. 

The North Carolina University commit also set a new national record amongst high school girls in the 1,600 meter by beating her own previous record. She had previously set the record at the 2024 Arcadia Invitational on April 6. Her time improved from 4:32.48 to 4:29.86. 

On April 20, Valentina Fakrogha ‘24, Aelo Curtis ‘26, Melanie True ‘26 and Engelhardt competed in the distance medley relay. The distance medley relay is a track & field event where four members compete in a team relay. Each member runs a leg of the relay with different distances, 400, 800, 1200 or 1600 meters. The four girls completed the relay with a record breaking time of 11:21.85, beating out Harvard-Westlake’s 13 year old record of 11:22.23. 

Aelo Curtis ‘26 said, “Well when I was running I was behind this girl from Santiago so I was just mostly feeling competitive and trying to catch up to her, or at least get as close as I could. When we won, it was super exciting and an amazing feeling. It was a pretty important race so it was awesome to be successful at it. My mindset was that we knew it was a possibility to get the national record, but I honestly didn’t really think we were going to get it. However, I was very excited and was looking forward to giving it my all and having fun, while also working for the success of my teammates as well. I mean, I felt absolutely stunned, I never thought that it would be possible to have that achievement, and to do it with others made it so much better. I’ve can’t really recall many other times where I’ve felt that happy or excited. I think me and all of the others girls just felt like we were on top of the world.” 

The boys team has also been dominating this season. Micah Grossman ‘24, Blake Harris ‘26, Luke Carnaghe ‘25 and Anthony Fasthorse ‘24 are this season’s leaders in the distance medley relay at the national level after running a 9:59.51 DMR (Distance Medley Relay) at the Mt. SAC Invitational. They were one of only two teams who completed the DMR in under 10 minutes. 

Fasthorse said, “I felt pretty dead as I ran the 4 x 1600 the day before I ran the DMR, but honestly my teammates just motivated me every lap to fight for them and get under the 10 [minute] barrier and I led the entire thing and was able to pull off the win and a new school record. I had a lot of confidence in myself and my teammates as we put in countless hours day in and day out so I just knew it was only a matter of time before we were able to showcase the culmination of all our hard work. This track season has been the best, getting to end my time as a cougar as the state championships with a chance to get the state title as me and Micah Grossman come into the meet favorited as the number one  and number two 1600 [meter]  runners in the state, so we just wanna see what we can pull off and bring back some hardware and possibly a state title. But following the state meet we will be attending Hoka Festival of Miles to attempt the school record and will end off our high school careers at Nike outdoor Nationals with the DMR in an attempt to win a national title for the school and at that same meet we both have select individual events to run.”

This year’s track & field team was coached by Preston Biller. The first time head coach has led the team to yet another Channel League winning season. Fasthorse said, “I honestly was just overjoyed and couldn’t be more proud of my team and everything we did at that meet as we were the distance team of the meet out of all the schools there as we brought home the 4 x 1600 [meter]  relay championship and the DMR so it was just an absolutely surreal awesome time.”