Sports

Dragon Boat Team Takes First Among CA High Schools

The Mountain View-Milpitas High dragon boat club is now number one among high schools in the state who competed over the weekend at a Long Beach competition.

At the third race in the season, the took first in the High School Division A.

"This is the first time the team has accomplished this since entering this race back in 2005," wrote Coach Clara Arzadon in an email.  

About 23 paddlers from Mountain View and Milpitas High schools competed in the 15th annual Long Beach Dragon Boat Festival.  

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Like most races, competition is stratified into divisions (A, B, C) and then first, second, third within those divisions, according to Arzadon.

In addition to the high school division, the group also competed in Mixed Adult and 200m sprints. The High School and Adult Divisions are 500m.  

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The group maintained an average time of 2:08 over the 500m course during the last weekend of July. The Mountain View-Milpitas dragon boat first place finish was a blistering 2:08.06. 

Unfortunately, the average time was not enough to take on the mixed adult teams in Division IIA.  Mountain View-Milpitas missed an award winning 4th place to Lightwave (who also practices with the group at the in Redwood City).  

The final races of the day were the 200m sprints.  The Los Angeles Racing Dragons (LARD) overwhelmed Mountain View-Milpitas and the competition in the seeding rounds and was the only team to advance to the finals. 

The High School Division in Long Beach is usually dominated by San Francisco based teams.  This was the first time for a South Bay high school team to win first place in Division A.  


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