Blazing Batons: Updated Winter Championships Relay Report

2019 CA Winter Championships
Jeffrey Parenti

GIRLS

Claremont's winning DMR team (l-r) Isatu N'Daiye, Angie Gushue, Kalinda Reynolds, Azalea Segura-Mora. (Jeffrey Parenti photo)

4x200 (MR: 1:40.43)

  • 2018 CA Best: Long Beach Poly 1:35.20 (Long Beach Poly All-Comers)
  • 2018 Winter Champion: Rancho (Las Vegas) 1:40.43*; (Top CA team: 2. Carson 1:41.70)

2019 Teams to watch: There are 15 teams entered in this event. Leuzinger (Shamari Blanchard, Aniyah Wyche, Jailah Collins, Adepeju Bamiro) qualified in 1:44.21. The team is comprised of three sophomore and Wyche, a freshman. Don't count out Corona with junior Egbe Ndip-Agbor on anchor. She went 24.69 last year and is the No. 11 returner in the state. Senior Jazmin Lucatero, scheduled to run second leg for the Panthers, had a 2018 best of 25.43. Great Oak's scheduled third leg is senior Kristina Bong, who has a best of 25.22.

  • 2019 Champion: Orange Vista 1:42.80. 
  • Watch the 2019 race (above)

How'd we do? Welp, Ndip-Agbor anchored Corona into third place. Roosevelt was a close second (1:42.94). But Orange Vista, a four-year old school, was impressive in holding off two other Inland Empire schools with the team of Talayah Wright, Dorothy Jackson, Skye Lattimore and Zyaire Billew. (Orange Vista was not in the original posted pre-meet entries for this race and post-meet results misidentified one of the runners. We have updated the article to include Talayah Wright as the lead leg.)

4x800 (MR: 9:33.20)


  • 2018 CA Best: Orange County Heat 9:17.80 (at Boise Indoors)
  • 2018 Winter Champion: Claremont 9:49.00
2019 Teams to watch: There are only six teams qualified and entered to participate in this event, including three from Great Oak, but the race should come down to three teams: Claremont, Dana Hills and Great Oak's A team. Claremont (Kalinda Reynolds, Angie Gushue, Isatu N'Daiye, Julia Marriott) comes in as the defending champion and went 10:12.60 at the Covina Qualifier. Dana Hills (Camryn Toole, Mia Lawrence, Tess Mathes, Jaden Haskins) 10:01.57 at the Los Alamitos Qualifier. But when it comes to distance events, it's not wise to ever count out Great Oak. The team of Kendall Harrison, Brianna Weidler, Arianna Griffiths and Fatima Cortes is one to watch. Cortes, who has signed with Cal, won the 1500 and 3000 at this meet last February. Cortes went 2:14.75 last year. Haskins ran 2:20.46 and Marriott went 2:28.68.
  • 2019 Champion: Great Oak 9:41.32
  • Check out the 2019 race (above)
How'd we do? Nailed it!! Dana Hills (9:48.36) was second and Claremont (10:01.06) was third behind the Great Oak A team of Kendall Harrison, Brianna Weidler, Arianna Griffiths and Fatima Cortes.

SMR (MR: 1:48.65)

  • 2018 Winter Champion: Chino 1:48.65*

2019 Teams to watch: There are 21 teams entered into this event which will be run in multiple sections. The young Leuzinger team of Ro Kyia Ferguson, Aniyah Wyche, Jailah Collins and Adepeju Bamiro qualified in 1:48.50 but may be hard pressed to hold off a stacked quartet from Calabasas in the 100-100-200-400 event. The Calabasas team is scheduled to include Brown-signee Kennedy Waite, sophomore transfer Bella Witt, State 300 hurdles runner-up Kyla Robinson-Hubbard and Miami-bound DeAnna Nowling. While Nowling is the State champion in the 100 meters, she says her favorite race is the 400 where she had a best of 56.26 last year. This group will be one to watch throughout the outdoor season. Chino, the 2018 champion, is not entered this year.

  • 2019 Champion: Calabasas 1:44.28
  • Check out the 2019 race (above)
  • Team Interview

How'd we do? Even with sophomore Jade McDonald subbing into the lineup for Robinson-Hubbard and Witt moving to the 200 leg, the speedy ladies from Calabasas blazed to a MR with Nowling running a 55.3 anchor leg on the 400.


DMR (MR: 12:17.75)

  • 2018 Winter Champion: Claremont 12:17.75*

2019 Teams to watch: There are 10 teams entered in this event, including defending champion Claremont. The Wolfpack come in with a qualifying best of 13:03.51 and an incomplete lineup in the entries. We do know the quartet to try to defend their title will include Angie Gushue, Isatu N'Daiye and Cal-bound Kalinda Reynolds. Covina with Sarah Lora, Serra transfer Maya Rush, Katelyn Vuong and Rosaly Castorena could challenge in this 1200-400-800-1600 event, as could Serrano with Elizabeth Martin, Marisol Aguilar, Maribel Aguilar and Madison Elliott. Martin is the only senior in the Serrano lineup that does not currently include freshman distance star Tiani Goeson. Great Oak has three of the 10 entries but its "A team" isn't necessarily the "A team" the Wolfpack will field later this spring. However, it's Great Oak, and undoubtedly the team of Katya Candray, Megan Lonsdale, Kendall Harrison and Elizabeth Richter will look to make a statement.

  • 2019 Champion: Claremont 12:41.94
  • Watch the 2019 race (above)
  • Team Interview

How'd we do? This was a no-brianer once the entries came out and Great Oak was stacking a lineup to challenge in a battle of the Wolfpack. The Claremont team of Azalea Segura-Mora, Isatu N'Daiye, Angie Gushue and Kalinda Reynolds defended their title by more than half a minute over the Great Oak team of Katya Candray, Megan Lonsdale, Kendall Harrison and Elizabeth Richter.