Mira Costa to host Mustang Relays track meet this weekend
Mira Costa’s Amari Frasier placed fourth in the 100-meter hurdles facing stiff competition at the Redondo NIKE Track Festival, placing her 14th in the state. Photo courtesy of Ruth Grau
Following last weekend’s Redondo NIKE Track Festival, it’s now Mira Costa’s turn to host many of the area’s top athletes when the Mustang Relays take place on Saturday.
“We are looking forward to hosting 27 schools at the Mustang relays and excited about the quality of the distance schools attending – Saugus, West, Redondo, and Loyola are all powerhouse distance programs,” Mira Costa girls coach Renee Williams-Smith said. “The Distance Relays should prove to be exciting and the opportunity to race these great schools on our home track will be epic.”
Mira Costa’s girls team turned in a top-ten performance at the NIKE event led by two of the Mustangs’ relay teams and four individuals.
“I’m proud of our team and their performances at the Redondo Invitational,” head coach Moe Russell said. “It’s still early but we’re starting to see their hard work in the off season paying off.”
The girls teams from Mira Costa and Redondo both finished in the top ten while Great Oak from Temecula showed its prominence by placing second in both the boys and girls competition.
“The Redondo Nike Track Festival was a huge success in a variety of ways,” Redondo coach Bob Leetch said. “Not only was it a large meet, accommodating more than 80 separate high schools, but it produced the largest number of Elite marks in the nation.
“Prepcaltrack.com, which is the main portal of information for track and field in California, reports that the next closest meet produced 42 Elite marks. Elite marks are a high standard of marks based on the previous years state leaders. The Redondo Nike Track Festival produced 156 Elite marks. It is huge for our meet to put up those types of marks, crazy really.”
Eleanor Roosevelt High School captured the girls title with 78 points, edging Great Oak (75) and Ayala (68.5). Redondo placed 4th with 64.66 points and Mira Costa was 10th with 36.5 points.
Redondo’s relay teams were its top performers winning the sprint medley relay with a time of 1:52.53, placing second in the 4×800 (9:27.46) and fourth in the 4×100 (46.26). The Sea Hawks’ distance medley relay was seventh (13:01.03).
Other impressive finishes came from pole vaulter Amari Turner who placed 2nd with a mark of 12-06, Isabella Landy (4th, 1600, 5:05.72), Mahkaia Lee (5th, long jump, 17-06.5), Katherine Kluver (7th, long jump, 17-01.5), Kylee Kallick (7th, high jump, 4-09) and Mia Fong (8th, 300 hurdles, 48.78).
Mira Costa was led by its distance medley relay team which finished second at 12:40.07 and the 4×400 relay team (5th, 4:07.78).
Top Mustang individual performances came from Amari Frasier (4th, 100 hurdles, 15.27), Brigette Grau (4th, pole vault, 11-06), Dalia Frias (8th, 1600, 5:11.71) and Natalia Cervantes (9th, 300 hurdles, 48.86).
“Redondo runs a great Invitational and the kids really get excited to be a part of it,” Williams-Smith said. “The girls distance team running their first big meet of the season at Redondo Invite did not disappoint. Our girls DMR team placed 2nd and now has the 5th fastest time in the state and I think they can improve even more on that time. Each one of the four girls in the DMR came back the next day and ran the open 1600 or 800 and improved on their season bests. Dalia Frias, Lucy Atkinson, and Brook Inouye all raced the 1600 and Lucy Konsmo ran the 800 and improved her personal record by two seconds and they are just getting started.”
Palos Verdes finished 5th in the single medley relay (1:54.34) and Peninsula’s Cheyenne Fu was 8th in the pole vault (11-00).
Long Beach Poly won the boys competition with 93 points followed by Great Oak (90) and Loyola (72).
The South Bay had five teams finish in the top 20 with West (8th), Peninsula (11th), Redondo (15th), Mira Costa (18th) and Palos Verdes (20th).
Redondo was led by Anthony Zuanich (6th, 100, 10.99), Patrick Henry (8th, 800, 1:58.81) and Justin Yaskowitz (7th, high jump, 5-11).
Sea Hawk relay teams finishing in the top 10 included their 4×800 (7th, 8:16.05) and 4×100 (9th, 43.81). Palos Verdes was 2nd in the 4×800 (8:06.46) and 7th in the sprint medley relay (1:38.28) while West finished 7th in the 4×100 (42.99).
Mira Costa’s 4×400 relay team placed 6th (3:32.58) while Robert Craig finished 4th in the triple jump (4-10.50) and 9th in the long jump (19-11). In the 1600, Cormac Carew set a new school record while placing 9th (4:26.24) and Rory Schelly finished 9th in the pole vault (13-6).
West was led by Jake Parker whose 5th-place finish in the 3200 (9:17.56) was 10th in the nation. He also placed 7th in the 800 (1:58.57).
The Warriors received 4th-place finishes in the high jump by Ichiroh Rodriguez (5-11) and pole vault by Kyten Arthur (15-00).
Peninsula was led by hurdler Aidan Lieb, who placed 3rd in the 300 (40.57) and 4th in the 110 (14.73) events. Carlos Ocegueda was 5th in the shot put (50-01.25).
Complete results available at athletic.net.