Redondo’s girls track team records top 4×800 time in the nation
Montgomery Allison, Isabella Landry, Peyton Heiden and Dominica Villegas celebrate after posting the top time in the nation in the girls 4×800 relay. Photo courtesy of Bob Leetch
With many of the state’s top track and field athletes coming to Redondo this weekend for the 9th annual Redondo Nike Track Festival, the Sea Hawk girls are showing they will be in the hunt for first-place on the podium.
The meet begins Friday at approximately 2 p.m. with the Distance and Throws Carnival. On Saturday, the meet starts at 9 a.m. with field events and a full schedule of track events. More information available at redondoinvitational.com.
Redondo’s girls are coming off a fine performance on Friday at the Griffin Relays in Long Beach as two relay teams set top times in the state.
“The Griffin Relays was a definite step up in terms of competition,” coach Bob Leetch said. “We’ve already been facing tough competition in the sprints from Long Beach Poly and Long Beach Wilson but the additional powers of Dana Hills and Woodbridge brought their great distance depth.”
The event was highlighted by the 4×800 team of Montgomery Allison, Isabella Landry, Peyton Heiden and Dominica Villegas who improved on their state leading mark with a time of 9:23.54. The 16 second improvement moves the Sea Hawks to the top time in the nation.
One hour later Allison, Landry and Heiden were joined by Eve Divinity in the Distance Medley Relay for another convincing win. The time of 12:36.97 moved the Redondo squad to the No. 1 time in the state. Displaying depth in the event, Redondo’s ‘B’ team placed second overall with 13:06.06, good enough for the No. 7 performance in the state.
The Sea Hawks also won the 4×200 with a time of 1:43.87. Mahkaia Lee captured the long jump title with a mark of 18-06.75 (6th in State) and Amari Turner, last year’s runner-up in the State finals, won the pole vault competition with a height of 12 feet (7th in State).
“The 4×800 gave us a great idea as to where we are at and what we need to work on,” Peyton Heiden said. “The atmosphere was perfect and such a great experience. We each have things we want to work on and with the coming weeks, we hope to bring that time down close to 9:15. I’m so proud of the way we raced; this was a key indicator of things to come.”
The boys team of Patrick Henry, Christoph Waligorski, Ariel Rodriguez and Ben Tait won the 4×800 relay with a time of 8:06.84 to move up to No. 4 in the state.
Mira Costa’s track and field squad tuned up for the Redondo Nike Track Festival with a tri-meet featuring West Torrance and Santa Monica. The Lady Mustangs won 11 events while the boys team captured four.
Freshman Dalia Frias continued to improve, leading Mira Costa to wins in the 800 (2:26.83) and 1600 (5:15.34).
Other winners included Sara Mooney (100, 12.90), Clara Oscarson (400, 1:03.02), Amari Fraser (110 Hurdles, 15.60), Natalia Cervantes (300 Hurdles, 50.11), Alyssa Toyooka (Shot Put, 25-11), Brigette Grau (Pole Vault, 11-00), and Sadie Beaumont (Long Jump, 14-10).
Also winning were Mira Costa girls relay teams in the 4×800 (50.53) and the 4×400 (4:10.18).
In boys competition, winner included Cormac Carew (800, 1:58.53), Jules Barrieu (300 Hurdles, 43.70), Jacob Elson (Shot Put, 38-00) and Brent Boone (Triple Jump, 40-10).