Mount Si beats MI, Valley rival Cedarcrest

The Mount Si High School track teams closed out their regular season last Thursday, May 1, at Mercer Island, as they took on Valley rival Cedarcrest along with the host Islanders.

The Wildcat boys won the meet, and in doing so had a historic performance, as senior Drake da Ponte set a school record time of 4:22.30 in the 1,600 meter run, breaking a record previously set by the great Nick Rogers. Beating a large number of Islander runners to take the crown in the event, da Ponte hopes his record performance inspires other student athletes to try to beat it.

“I just hope that there’s some other little kid that just gets it right after me,” he said. “I just want to see the day where there’s another kid coming in and breaks my record. That will be good. I hope I’m there that day.”

Wildcat boys’ coach Chris Jackson praised da Ponte.

“The really cool thing about it is Drake’s a hard worker,” Jackson said. “He’s a four year member of this program. He’s been working towards that for four years, so it’s really cool to see that come together for him. He totally deserved it.”

Frank McLaughlin won both the 100 and 200 meter runs, races which were dominated by Mount Si. Freshman Shelby Williams had strong runs in both events as well. Colin Alexander won both the 400 and 800 meter runs for the Wildcats.

Alexander knows there’s room for improvement, but is still pleased.

“I didn’t do as well in the 800 as I wanted to, so I’m a little disappointed with that time,” he said. “But on the whole, I’m happy with my season so far.”

Owen Strom led a sweep of the 3,200 meter run for Mount Si with a time of 10:07.50; finishing behind Strom were da Ponte and Max

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