See the following article for a summary of the track season.

Adding Another Mike to the Record
The Albany Cougar track team started the season off with a bang, shattering three school records. Though they lost a number of key members from last year, the skilled team stepped up in a big way. While all members of the team contributed to its outstanding success, senior Mike Gaunt left his mark in the school record books with 42.65 in the 300 hurdles.

Sophomore Tiana Diaz soared above all the other competitors and broke the high jump record with a leap of 4’10”.

Shortly after, junior Talei Tagivakatini confirmed her status as one of the mightiest shotputters in Albany High history. On Saturday, April 25, at the Fred Faucett Invitational, she launched the stone 39’ 6.” beating the previous record set by Rebecca Molinari.

Tagivakatini joined track as a freshman and has since excelled in the shot put and discus events. Her stupendous performance has taken her to the Meet of Champions for the past two years in both events, but she has never been to the State Meet. Since freshman year, she has been working tirelessly to reach that goal.

After breaking the record set by Molinari, her path to state is very clear. Tagivakatini says with a smile, “I made a deal with Rick [Holtzman] that if I broke a record and went to state, I’d get a Letterman’s jacket with all my past accomplishments on it.” She has already achieved one of these goals and is on her way to competing at the second in Clovis this weekend.

When she broke the record at the Fred Faucett Invitational, she was surprised. Before the meet, she was feeling a little apprehensive because the end of the season was approaching and she had yet to reach her goal. “Last week I was thinking about the end of the season and I was afraid that I wasn’t going to break it this year,” she said. But all of her hard work and effort paid off when she finally broke the school record. “When I saw that I had the record, I felt a mixture of relief and a little bit of excitement,” she explained.

On Saturday, May 16, Tagivakatini smothered the competition and won first place in both the shot put and discus events at BSAL. This is Tagivakatini’s third year winning the BSAL competition with a total of six BSAL titles between the two events.

Mike Gaunt, who also competed in the BSAL Championship, triumphed in the 300 hurdle event with an impressive time of 43.01. Gaunt originally joined track to run the 400-meter race, but when he found that that event was not right for him he `looked for a new race to participate in. In the meantime, he spent his practices keeping Matt Petrofsky company on the hurdles. A fast runner, Gaunt found himself excelling in the hurdles. He began to race in the event and beat the standing record Mike Savors, an Albany track star, set during his junior year.

During the meet against Piedmont, the pressure was on; everyone was watching Gaunt, waiting for him to break the record again. As an experienced hurdler, Gaunt focused on his form rather than speed. He spent hours pumping his arms and placing his left foot exactly in the three-meter box.

Gaunt explained his strategy for the season, “whenever I run I try not to think about anything except for where I’m going to put my foot.” All his hard work paid off at the Piedmont meet where he beat his idol, Savors, with a new record of 42.65. But Gaunt remembers having doubts about beating the record: “I was looking at the last hurdle wondering how the hell am I going to get over this.” But no worries for Gaunt: in fact he did leap over that last hurdle and he now sits in the record book next to Mike Savors. “He’s like a legend. And to be up there with him, [it] feels pretty good.”

In addition to the amazing accomplishments by individual athletes, the team’s 5-1 record is proof of its overall success. In their final meet the Albany Cougar track team participated in a dual meet against Piedmont and did exceptionally well: Stephanie Byun placed fifth in the hurdles with a time of 20.05 while Edward Gong glided 19’ 7.5” across the sandpit and placed fourth in the long jump.

Likewise things went well at the BSAL Championships. Junior Varsity Boys placed first overall, Varsity Girls won second place and Varsity Boys received fourth place. Eleventh grader Kevin Liu won first place with a time of 24.58 in the 200 meters. Nolan Tonkyn, a freshman, won first place as well in the 3200 event in 10:25. Finally, Stuart Adams, Aidan Juengling-bean, Kevin Liu, and Tim Clopp ran an outstanding 4X400 in only 3:48.80.

Finally, Chris Gioia ran the 3200 meters in 9:29 at the NCS Meet of Champions at UC Berkeley on May 30. This time is just a few seconds off the school record.

Congratulations runners, throwers, and jumpers!

ASB:

• President: Melia Ungson
• Vice President: Aviva Prager
• Secretary: *Vacant
• Treasurer: Shannon Zhang
• Historian: Patricia Mou

Commissioner of Outreach: Prim Lueamnig

Commissioner of Diversity: Elena Lam

Commissioner of Spirit: Cherise Nketiah

Commissioner of Arts: *Vacant

Commissioner of Clubs: Colette Titus

Commissioner of Athletics: April Yang

Commissioner of Technology: Daniel Berger

Commissioner of Elections: Elaine Fang
ASB Reps:
- School Site Council: 

• Jean Kang
• Nan Luo
• *Vacant

- IIC:

• Savannah Conley
• Jackie Hoe

- PTSA:

• Melanie Zhou

- ASB School Board Reps:

• Gi-Youn Lee
• Jonathan Chiang

Senior Class Council:

• President: Eugene Yang
• Vice President: Christine Kwak
• Secretary: *Vacant
• Treasurer: Carina Coffey

Junior Class Council:

• President: Antonio Greenwood
• Vice President: Asia Kwan
• Secretary: Sharrie Chen
• Treasurer: Angela Nguyen

Sophomore Class Council:

• President: Megan Healy
• Vice President: Patrick Xu
• Secretary: Melody Sit
• Treasurer: Kenny Ouye

The Cougar’s usually solid defense faltered early on and the Dragons took advantage of every opportunity.

At the plate, the Cougars lacked punch, with only a handful of runners even getting into scoring position.

As difficult as the loss was, the 22-4 Cougars have much to be proud of and to look ahead to. In two years, the team has reached the NCS finals twice, with a championship in 2008.

The squad is only losing one player, shortstop Hannah Kramer, to graduation. With a lineup full of playoff-experienced players, another NCS championship - and getting by nemesis O’Dowd - are well within reach.

Congratulations softball Cougars!

Arkin provided all of the offense needed with a three-run homer to left center. Arkin also played a solid defense that collectively shut out the Mustangs.

Muse pitched another complete game, bringing her overall record to 13-3.

The 22-3 Cougars will play in the championship game Saturday May 30 at Chabot College. They will play the winner of the Bishop O’Dowd - Del Norte game, also played today.

Game time and opponent details to follow.

With the win, the Cougars advance to the NCS semifinals against another Marin County team, San Marin, Wednesday May 27, 5:00 p.m. at Memorial Park.

The Cougars pounded out 10 hits, including a 3 for 4, 4-RBI, 2-run performance by senior Hannah Kramer.

Junior Katie Carter was 1 for 2 on the day with a walk, sacrifice fly, a double and two RBIs.

Sara Muse pitched a complete game, bringing the junior’s overall record to 12-3.

With the win, the 2009 softballers are bringing a 21-3 record against the 19-4 San Marin Mustangs, who beat Acalanes 7-2 to reach the NCS semifinals.

ASB School Board Representatives: (2 positions)

• Jennifer Park
• Gi-Youn Lee
• Jonathan Chiang
• Yu Zhang

If you round up a group of adults of the same generation, most of them can identify with certain songs, or at least musicians. Play them Bob Dylan or The Grateful Dead, and they will likely recall what was going on in their world when the music was at the height of its popularity. Given this fact, I began to wonder: will our generation have any sort of collective remembrance of music?

In recent years, an absurd number of bands have emerged, and our access to them is virtually instant. Though this incredible access to music and influx of musicians is not entirely bad, it does hinder any hopes for a shared connection with music years down the line. Many times, bands and artists that hold meaning for one are likely to be completely irrelevant to others.

Much of the music that does get radio play is undeniably, inconceivably idiotic. Sure, many people my age might know Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl,” but somehow I doubt that I will remember it as representative of my teenage years.

How about Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance”? With lyrics like, “A dizzy twisted dance, can’t find my drink, oh man. Where are my keys? I lost my phone, phone…Just dance, gonna be okay, da da doo-doo-mmm…” I can say with great confidence that I will not be looking back fondly at her prodigious gift for words.

In 2009, “hits” are fleeting; I merely have to wait a few months to hear another nauseating song accompanied by equally laughable lyrics. Sickeningly sweet Miley Cyrus may be outselling Elvis Presley, but I refuse to believe that her songs will transcend the decades, even for younger generations. When much of popular music seems entirely worthless in its own time, how can we expect it to last longer than a few good laughs?

Perhaps I should let go of any far-off notions of reminiscing about the songs of my youth and how they affected my generation. Maybe, in our increasingly self-centered society, individuals are intended to have their own “anthem.” I could be entirely wrong, and thirty years from now I will be singing along to Jamie Foxx’s classic, “Blame it (On the Alcohol)”, remembering the good ol’ days.

            The Albany High School Track and Field team is having a solid season this year. Despite being a team comprised of relatively new members, Cougar runners, jumpers and throwers have broken a series of school and personal records.

            Sophomore Tiana Diaz shattered the high jump record with a leap of 4’10”.

            Senior Mike Gaunt slashed the 300 hurdles school record with a time of 42.65 seconds.

            Talei Tagavakatini has been her own worst enemy setting and then breaking her own shot put record. She is currently second among NCS competitors with a school record heave of 41’2”.           

At the final dual meet of the season, junior Chris Gioia fought neck and neck with favorite Dan Maxwell from St Mary’s in the 1500 meters. Not only did he win the race, but Gioia also achieved a personal best of 4:28.9.

            The JV boys were undefeated in the dual meet season.  The varsity girls had a record of 7-1, good for a second place BSAL finish.  The varsity boys had a final record of 5-2 and ranked third in league.

The track team will compete in the BSAL championships at Piedmont on Thursday May 16 with finals on Saturday May 16.

Let the games begin. Round Robin Competition.

We got up disgustingly early to eat our breakfast. Afterwards, we tried to play Risk before brunch, but it turns out we are not good at taking risks.

We established the Albany Science Bowl theme song: “Every Time We Touch” by Cascada. All of us sang this all the way down to our first match — Albuquerque. That is, all of us except Jamie’s nerdy ass.

We eviscerated Albuquerque.

The next team was Lafayette, and they were supposed to be pretty smart. Turns out, not as smart as us. Ha ha. Earlier we overheard a team complaining, “Mira Loma, Albany, and Parkview are all in our division. Crap.”

Lucky us. Our next match was Parkview. We were slightly nervous because… (we interrupt this blog because George had the best quote of the week: “Pretty Asians who are hella pro bring out the worst in me.”) Anyway, they were the team that won hella chocolate last night for having the best structure made out of spaghetti and other stuff.

Our next competition was against Mira Loma. We lost by a smaller margin than any other team, so that was kinda good in a way. Did we mention Mira Loma is hella pro? So pro that they’re gonna win the whole Science Bowl.

Unfortunately, George and I are both attracted to their alternate. Intersexual selection anyone? Digression to the third power.

Did we mention how little the three seniors actually studied? Over a period of 2.73 months, we have only studied a combined total less than fifteen man-hours. Anyhoo….

George: “I shouldn’t kill someone just because they want to have a good time.”

We apologize for making this into a George blog, but he is pretty hilarious. We actually have lots to write about.

The other teams in round robin were too bad to mention except for one team. In our divine brilliance, we somehow managed to lose to Cherry Creek, a team that had lost to four other teams before we played them. Because of the two losses, we were afraid we had lost our spot in the top 16. We were afraid we would tie with another team, which would be broken by the tie-breaker, an experiment in which we pulled out 6th out of 9th. Long story short, we somehow pulled out of it alive. If you are wondering about the details, ask me during Government and Econ.

Double Elimination Round
Props to Woodrow Wilson. We would have won if we got the 10-point bonus at the end of the round. That was our most epic match of the day.

Our next match was against Brophy, a dark horse team that sweep their round robin division. They came out of nowhere like vacuum energy. They plowed through Homestead and Thomas Jefferson. It was another close match and we were ready to take out the heart medication. Albany came out on top.

Our next match was against MSJ (Mission San Jose), our archrivals. MSJ is to Albany in Science Bowl as Piedmont is to Albany in nearly every sport. We pulled through and beat them by a narrow margin, thanks mainly to an epic challenge by Benji that made the epic match even more epic than usual. We were extremely pleased with ourselves at this point. We had surpassed the results of last year’s team and had escaped elimination three times. Everything else was just gravy on the cake.

Our next adversary was Homestead. We were in the top eight and this was when visual bonuses started. All you need to know about visual bonuses is that they are ridiculously hard. Think of answering an AP FRQ with 30 seconds on some random topic. It’s like going on four first dates in 30 seconds without it being awkward. We won 62 to 34. We were now in the top six, and we were all deliriously happy, but the night was not over.

Our last match, which would determine top four for tomorrow, was just about to begin. We were going up against last year’s champions, Santa Monica. Oh, I forgot to mention, I was wearing my pink bunny ears as an intimidation tactic. However, when I went to say hi to the other team, a short Russian guy from Santa Monica asked me, “Are you homosexual?”

We had an intense match, but it ended in our defeat. At the end of the match, the same short Russian guy accused Albany of cheating. What a jackass. To refrain from vulgar language, I will not go into the details in this blog. Ask me during Government and Econ for the full story.

Although we missed top four, and a mention in Wikipedia, we exceeded all expectations and are extremely content with our fifth-place performance.

Congratulations to the Albany High School Science Bowl Team and their fifth-place national finish: seniors Elise Cai, George Shan; junior Jamie Lincoff; sophomore Corwin Shiu; coach Peggy Carlock and blogging senior, Benji Kessler.

The team, coached by Peggy Carlock, includes seniors Elise Cai, George Shan and Benji Kessler, junior Jamie Lincoff and sophomore Corwin Shiu.

More details upon the team’s return from D.C.