Monica Townsend actually feels like her Wildcats have been running into a stiff wind of adversity all season long—everything from flu, bronchitis and pneumonia to tendinitis, hamstring pulls and broken bones has hampered the girls track team this spring. So she's not going to complain too much about a windy day.

"All in all, it was a good night for the Wildcats," said Townsend. "This year has been plagued with injury and illness, but it's forced the younger troops to shine where they may not have known they could."

The highlight of the meet for the Cats was a second-place finish in the 4x400 relay in 4:06.37. Freshmen Sammi Moser, Christine Reed and Callie Mulgannon teamed with sophomore Jaimee Erickson to carry the baton to the runner-up finish. The four runners clocked in within two-tenths of a second of each other in their respective 400s.

Moser, in her first ever attempt at 400 meters, ran 61.6 with Reed and Mulgannon each running 61.4. Erickson finished up at 61.5.

In other action, Reed was fifth in 48.30 in the 300-meter hurdles and she was also eighth in the 100 in 13.77 with teammate Mary Gonzales ninth in 13.77.

Moser was her heat in the 200 in 27.37 and ended up second overall in the event, and Mulgannon was 12th in the 400 in 61.38 with Erickson 14th in 61.40.

Junior Ariana Nicewonger was ranked 15th in the 3,200 meters heading into the meet but romped to a ninth-place finish in 11:35.54.

"Being ranked 15th going in didn't phase her," said Townsend of Nicewonger. "She ran an extremely smart and gutsy race, nearly PR-ing in the process." The time was a second off her personal best run last season.

Sophomore Jill Goodwin was 12th and freshman Kaela Townsend finished 13th in the 1,600-meter run.

A week earlier, the Gatos girls sent seven relay teams to the Arcadia Invitational and grabbed a first, second, third and fourth.

"I've never brought so many girls and run so many relays at this meet," said Townsend. "What a great experience for this young team who will be ready to qualify and run in individual events next year."

Senior Caroline Stege (60.8 split) teamed with Reed (62.6), Mulgannon (59.9) and Erickson (58.8) to finish first in a seeded heat of the 4x400 relay. Their time of 4:02.54 was a season best by seven seconds and ranks No. 2 in CCS.

Reed, sophomore Jenna Clark, Gonzales and Erickson ran 51.07 to nail second in the 4x100 relay, and Reed, Erickson, Clark and Gonzales finished third in the 4x200 relay in 1:49.12. The sprint medley team of Reed (27.5 200), Erickson (26.8 200), Mulgannon (60.5 400) and sophomore Samantha Peppard (2:28.0 800) was fourth in 4:23.64.

Senior Michelle Johnson came through with a solid individual effort in Arcadia, leaping 5-5 to finish fifth in the high jump. Johnson is currently ranked second in the state in the high jump with a 5-8 effort that broke the school record of 5-7 set by Tina Farnady in 1991.

Mulgannon, freshman Kelly Garton, Peppard and Stege ran 9:48.69 to get ninth in the 4x800 relay and Nicewonger, junior Jacqui Kemp, Townsend and sophomore Jill Goodwin were ninth in the 4xmile in 22:22.01.

Kemp, Peppard, Garton and Townsend ran 13:07.53 to get 10th in the distance medley relay.

The Wildcats travel to Gunn on April 28 for their final dual meet of the season in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

Reed (100 hurdles, 300 hurdles) and Johnson (high jump, long jump) were each double winners in the most recent win over Los Altos. Goodwin (1,600), Nicewonger (3,200) and sophomore Madeline Rose (shot put) also won events for the Cats.

Earlier in the month, the youngest of the Wildcats starred at the Frosh-Soph Classic held on the Gatos track.

"My freshman and sophomores wowed the crowd with a team win at our own prestigious Frosh-Soph Classic," said Townsend.

Reed, Erickson, Clark and Moser opened the meet with a win in the 4x100 relay in 50.56, and Peppard, Garton, Mulgannon and Erickson won the 4x400 relay.

For Reed, it was a big day. She was first in the 100 in 13.02, she was first in the 300 hurdles in a personal best 48.49 and she was fourth in the 100 hurdles.

Mulgannon was first in the 400 with Erickson sixth; Goodwin was second in the 1,600 with Townsend seventh; Moser was third in the 200; and Peppard was fifth in the 800.

The Los Gatos boys will also wrap up the league season at Gunn this week. The Wildcats are 2-3 after losing 70-51 to unbeaten Los Altos. Still, a few Cats turned in impressive performances.

Sophomore Mathew Petrillo won the 1,600 in 4:36.6 and took the 3,200 in 10:10.75, and senior Devin Lopez won the shot put at 45-3 and the discus at 139-0.

Junior Don Gaspar was a winner in the 400 in 49.80 and freshman Kevin Rutledge soared 6-4 to take the high jump.

Rutledge was superb in the CCS Top 8 meet at Los Gatos last week. The freshman finished first in the long jump at 19-2.5, first in the triple jump at 39-9.75 and second in the high jump at 5-10 on his way to winning the frosh-soph Field Athlete of the Meet.

Lopez and Gaspar starred for the Wildcats in the varsity version of the Top 8. Lopez was second in the shot put at 50-4.5 and ninth in the discus at 130-7, and Gaspar raced to a second in the 800 in 1:58.26.

Chase Kinser was 14th in the 200 in 24.91, and Seth Smart was ninth in the 1,600 in 4:34.96 and fourth in the 3,200 in 9:56.45 with Petrillo 15th.

In other frosh-soph action, Randall Horn was second in both the shot put and discus with Colin Quirke sixth in each event; Jon Berthet was third in the 800 with Dane Sawyer sixth; and Michael Johnson was fifth in the 1,600.