Many of Southern California’s top high school track and field athletes will showcase their talents Friday and Saturday when Redondo hosts its 7th annual Nike Track & Field Festival.
Competition begins Friday at 2 p.m. with the Distance & Throws Carnival featuring varsity 4×800-meter relay, 3200m, Distance Medley, shot put and discus events.
Approximately 1,600 medals will be awarded during the two-day event including the top five for individual events and top three for relay teams.
Trophies will be presented for top overall varsity teams competing in the Distance Carnival, the throws competition Iron Man (boy) and Iron Maiden (girl) and invitational boys and girls team scores on Saturday
Saturday’s action begins at 9 a.m. and includes the 4x100m and 4x400m relays, hurdles, 100, 400m and 800m races, sprint medley, long jump, high jump, triple jump and pole vault.
General admission is $10 or $15 for both days. Students with valid ID and seniors 65 and older are $5. Children 12 and under are admitted free.
All races will be videotaped and viewed on the runnerspace.com/DyestatCal.com website throughout the day. There will be a live DJ spinning tunes before and after races and 97.1 AMP Radio will be performing a live remote from 12-4 p.m. on Saturday.
One of the highlights of the festival will be the boys and girls pole vault competition. Redondo’s Tate Curran set a personal best at the Bishop Amat Relays last Saturday clearing 16 feet, 6 inches. The previous week Mira Costa’s Brigette Grau won the girls pole vault at the Thousand Oaks Invitational setting a sophomore girls school record with a mark of 11 feet. Teammate Catherine Boudreau placed 2nd at 10-06.
Redondo athletes enjoyed success at Bishop Amat with six personal records set. Along with Curran, Anthony Zuanich ran a personal-best 11.27 to finish 2nd in the 100m dash and Jordan Jackson won the triple jump with a mark of 42-10.
In girls competition, Indica Showell and Sage Espy finished 2nd and 3rd in the 100m dash with personal records of 12.48 and 12.77, respectively.
Akaylah Hill won the long jump with a mark of 16-10.5, Amari Turner placed 2nd in the pole vault (9-09) and Molin Chudoba set a personal best 24-03.75 to finish 3rd in the shot put.
Mira Costa competed in the Palos Verdes Distance Day event last weekend and was led by cross country state champion Melia Chittenden who won the 1600m with a time of 5:09.99 ahead of teammate Gaby Guerrero (3rd, 5:33.55).
The Lady Mustangs won the 4×400 relay (4:19.07), Sierra Andrade (12:04.07) and Brooke Inouye (12:05.61) placed 2nd and 3rd in the 3200m and Jessica Gregson-Williams finished 3rd in the 800m (2:30.18).
Caleb Llorin (1:56.97) finished 2nd in the boys 800m competition and Matthew Arruda placed 3r in the 1600m (4:36.05).
Mira Costa kicked off the season at the Trabuco Hills Mustang Roundup where Shante Robinson won the girls 200m (25.01) and placed 3rd in the 100m hurdles (15:07), Jaylah Herron captured the long jump title (17-06) and Lydia Payne placed 2nd in the 400m (61.70).
In boys competition, Mira Costa’s Michael Yaskowitz placed 2nd in the 1600m (4:28.11), Andrew Nieto was runner-up in the 400m (51.62) and Eli Bedford was 2nd in the 110m hurdles (14.98).
For more information about the Redondo Nike Festival, visit runruhs.com.
