Berti, Lane Shine at Azusa Meet of Champions

The Paso Robles senior is having a great track season, and his latest victory came Saturday night over Callum Bolger in the MOC mile.


The 2017 edition of the Azusa Meet of Champions had no shortage of fast times, upsets, and surprises. Two US #1's were ran and plenty other performances that cemented athletes on the national leaderboards.


Trad Berti of Paso Robles took the win in the Boys Invitational Mile, running a US #1 4:10.55. Berti came from behind to catch early leaders Callum Bolger and Ethan Comeaux over the final 100m to seal the victory. 12 of the 13 runners were all under the previous CA #1 of 4:16.36, also held by Berti. In the Girls Invitational Mile, Mariah Castillo came up huge as she powered down the home straight to take the win in a US #3 time of 4:52.88. Castillo, who runs for the D2 powerhouse Saugus, was not even their #1 runner during the cross country season. A total of 7 girls dipped under 5:00, 5 in the Invitational race and 2 in the Rated. For the Boys Rated race, 5 runners were able to get under the elusive 4:20 barrier.


Perhaps the most outstanding performance of the night was that of Foot Locker National Champion Claudia Lane. Lane was able to gap the rest of the very field early, within the first 400m. About halfway through the race however, the stadium lights shut off, leaving the runners and spectators in the dark. This did not seem to affect Lane as she did not slow down on her way to running a new US #1 of 10:12.21. Taking second, a mere 24 seconds back was Castillo - and what an impressive night she had! Less than two hours after her mile race was over, she doubled back to run 10:36.79. These two girls led 16 other runners to sub 11:00 marks. In the Boys Invitational 3200, LA City Section standout Justin Hazell (El Camino) ran 9:10.03 in a very tactical race. 12 others were able to run under 9:20, all of which were in the Invite heat. Evert Silva of Fresno was able to pull off a 4:13/9:16 double, racing in both Invitational Heats.


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