We chat with the Murrieta Mesa sprint crew that helped bring home the program's first CIF-Southern Section divisional title and is headed to the CIF Masters Meet with bigger goals beyond that. Interviewed at the end of practice on a Tuesday is Christian Shakir-Ricks, Davonte Williams, Jeremiah Queen, Jermarcus Tate, and Matthew Okonkwo.
Coverage
Sandra Moya, a former Olympian for Puerto Rico, has been the sprints coach at Murrieta Mesa for the past four years. In this interview, Moya shares her background, coaching the sprints, and this special group of champions at Mesa.
Aaron Ballou, the only head track coach Murrieta Mesa has ever know, talks about the program's first CIF-Southern Section Divisional title, the makeup of the team, the challenges and advantages of competing in the talent-rich Southwestern League, and the team's goals for Saturday's CIF-SS Masters Meet.
Three girls from the Class of 2021 qualified for the CIF-State Championships in the 1600m on Saturday at the CIF-Southern Section Masters Meet. We chat with Jacqueline Duarte (Chino Hills), Audrey Suarez (Pasadena Mayfield) and Mia Barnett (Sun Valley Village Christian) after each punched their ticket to Clovis.
We chat with the state-leading Bonita girls 4x400 relay team. The team of senior Amari Prude, freshman Alisha Wilson, senior Sierra Julian and junior Sammie Riggs, who ran that CA #1 time of 3:44.92 at last week's CIF-SS Divisional finals, posted their second-fastest time of the season in winning at CIF-SS Masters on Saturday at El Camino College.
Highlights from the Boys 100m and 200m dash finals at the CIF-Southern Section Masters Meet. In the 100m, the state's top two sprinters, Asani Hampton (Yucaipa) and Christian Shakir-Ricks (Murrieta Mesa) went 1-2 in the 100m. Hampton crossed in 10.52 (2.2) and Shakir-Ricks in 10.53. The order is reversed in the 200m with Shakir-Ricks winning in 21.32 (1.1) and Hampton second in 21.55.
In this highlight clip, we see the finish of the girls 100m hurdles and the final 100m of the boys 300m hurdles. In the girls clip, CA's top two, Jada Hicks (Upland) and Danae Dyer (Temecula Valley) went 1-2 with three others running 13.93 or better (0.7 wind). Hicks won in 13.54, equalling her state-leading best with Dyer next in 13.79. Alli Jones (San Marcos), Breanna Bernard-Joseph (Roosevelt) and Nikki Merritt (Santa Margarita) also went sub-14. In the boys clip, Riverside King junior Reyte Rash took on a field that included six of the top 10 in the CA rankings and beat them all, crossing in 37.50. Caleb Roberson (Upland) was second in 37.63 with Blake Hennesay (Santa Margarita) third in 37.70.
This clip of boys distance finishes shows the end of the 800 and 3200. In the 800, senior Sam VanDorpe (Mater Dei) lowered his CA #1 time to 1:51.44 with senior Brett Hickman (Mission Viejo) at 1:52.89 and senior Ryan Bush (Tesoro) at 1:52.96 posting big PRs and CA top-10 times. In the 3200 clip, we see the final 100m as senior Xavier Court (Mira Costa) pulls away from junior Ethan Danforth (Canyon Country Canyon) and senior Jagdeep Chahal (Burbank Burroughs) in 9:01.78, a PR and the No. 6 time in the state.
A Southern Section girls team will be the favorite to win in Clovis - but WHICH team? We will have a clearer answer this weekend!
CIF-SS Masters Meet Coverage: Video interviews, race highlights are on the site now, with photos and articles still to come.
Too much good stuff at the Southern Section Masters Meet, qualifier for the CIF-State Finals.
The boys 1600 closed with a mad dash to the finish, won by Jagdeep Chahal. Check out that event and many others in our two posted albums!