San Clemente Opens With Dominant 4x800 Effort At Redondo

Mar 09, 2024

* San Clemente scored a big win in the 4x800 on Friday at the Redondo Nike Track Festival

Photo Credit: Raymond Tran/MileSplit

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by Ryan Blystone - MileSplit California

The San Clemente High School boys 4x800 relay team, consisting of twins Pierce Clark and Taj Clark, Jackson Brownell and Brett Ephraim -- the foursome winning last year's inaugural CIF State title in this event -- asserted themselves again on the first day of action at the Redondo Nike Track Festival on Friday at Redondo Union High.

Ephraim crossed the finish to complete the Tritons' meet record time of 7:52.02, which shaved more than a minute off the previous best of 7:53.33, which was last accomplished by Loyola in 2012.

Friday's effort gave San Clemente California's best boys time so far this season by nearly five seconds, passing Temecula's Great Oak, which clocked a time of 7:56.81 at the Corona Relays on Feb. 24.

San Clemente had the Clark brothers on the first two legs and Brownell in the third before he handed off to Ephraim to close it out.

Finishing second was Long Beach Wilson, whose 7:53.31 time also surpassed Loyola's previous best. Canyon Country Canyon was third in 7:58.75.

Ephraim, Brownell and the Clark brothers won the 4x800 relay CIF State title in 7:38.59 at Clovis Buchanan High's Veteran Memorial Stadium last May.

Other top varsity event performances on Friday, which featured boys and girls 3,200 meter races, a distance medley relay and boys and girls shot put and discus throws, were:

The girls 4x800 relay was won by Long Beach Wilson in 9:30.46, California's top time in 2024. Santiago Corona was second in 9:37.81 and Carondelet Concord of CIF's North Coast Section, was third in 9:45.58. The top seven teams each finished under 10 minutes.
South Pasadena's Abigail Errington won the girls 3200 in 10:40.07, finishing nine seconds ahead of runner-up Margaret Thompson from Hockaday (Dallas), Texas in 10:49.04.
Ibzan Felix of Beckman Irvine won the boys 3200 in 9:01.92, followed by Maximo Zavaleta of ML King Riverside (9:04.44) and Teg Pandher of CIF Central Section's Clovis North (9:05.99). Felix's time is the current best time in California.
Santiago Corona girls won the 4000 DMR in a time of 12:26.44 with Downey as the runners-up at 12:49.07. In the boys' DMR race, South Pasadena edged Warren at the finish line, 10:35.14 to 10:35.22. La Serna was third at 10:35.83.
McKay Madsen of Clovis North swept the boys shot put and discus events, taking the former with a top throw of 60-4 and then going 188-11 in the latter. Madsen already has the top discus throw in California this season at 190-0, set earlier this week in a March 6 dual meet between Clovis North and Fresno's Central. Madsen's shot put mark is seven inches shorter than Jake Todden of Argonaut from CIF's SAC-Joaquin Section. Todden's top heave is 60-11, which came in a Feb. 24 meet.
The girls' shot put event had co-champs with Kiana Greer of Torrance and CIF San Diego Section Otay Ranch's Gabriella Colon Gipson both going 38-11. Kiera Donovan from Golden Valley won discus with a top mark of 133-5. Jamie Deines, competing for meet host Redondo Union, was runner-up at 121-10.
Saturday's full second day of action starts at 8:30 a.m. PST with girls and boys varsity 1600-meter races on the track and the girls and boys long jump and high jump field events also beginning at that time.