Boys Virtual Semi: No. 1 Upland vs. No. 12 Trabuco Hills

It took a veteran throws crew, led by senior Erick Hiller, and an accumulation of points across all but one individual event for No. 12 Trabuco Hills (SS) to take down No. 1 Upland (SS). 

Sunday's scoring of the final semifinal in the boys bracket of the MileSplitCA March Madness Virtual Dual Meet Tournament sent the deep and versatile Mustangs into a championship matchup against No. 18 Mission Viejo in what evolved from a 32-team competition into an all-Orange County final. 

In the 75.5-60.5 victory over Upland, Hiller had the top marks in both the discus and shot put as Trabuco Hills swept the throws, 18-0. Hiller's support came in the form of seniors Logan Lopez, who was second in the shot, and Zach Porter, who was second in the discus, and junior Tevin Bowie, who was third in both. 

The only individual event sweep for Upland was the 100m dash, an outlier, as it turned out, won by senior Namir Hemphill.

Sophomore Delaney Crawford, who was second in the 100, had the fastest time in the 200m and in the 400m. Trabuco Hills senior Isaac Korn grabbed the three runner-up points in the deuce, and that was the trend as the Mustangs picked up points wherever they could across the meet. Junior Carson Kaminski and Korn went 2-3 in the 400m as the Mustangs managed to pull seven points out of the sprints. 

Junior Landen Lee had the fastest time in the 3200m and was second in the 1600m, and senior Kaiden Sahagun had the fastest time in the 800 as Trabuco Hills gained a three-point advantage in the distances. 

With Korn and Kamanski going 1-2 in the 300m hurdles and versatile junior Brandon Chau grabbing a point in the 110m hurdles, the Mustangs were able to play even in the barriers despite the efforts of impressive Upland freshman Kai Graves-Blanks, whose 14.79 (1.2) clocking before the 2020 outdoor season was shut down, ranks CA No. 6 for all-condition times. 

For Upland, senior Romeo Zendejas was first in the 1600m and second in the 800m, Hemphill was first in the triple jump, and junior Jailen Burrell had the top mark in the long jump. But that was it for the Highlanders. 

Chau also added to Trabuco Hills' accumulation with runner-up points in the high jump, long jump and triple jump. Senior teammate Augustine Reyes had the top mark in the high jump, and senior Andrew Cooper had the top mark in the pole vault as the Mustangs earned a 21-14 advantage in the jumps.