His season began with two second-place and another third-place finish at 800 meters.
But over Ambodai Ligon's last three appearances in a final, however, he's been undefeated at his go-to distance.
The Los Angeles Cathedral senior is looking to keep things that way after he secured a CIF Southern Section Finals title on Saturday in 1:51.32 at Moorpark Stadium to advance to the CIF SS Masters Championship next week.
Ligons reached the CIF State Outdoor final in the 800m a season ago, coming up just short in second.
But he may be timing things just right in 2024.
He held off second-place Alex Naehu (1:52.40) and South Pasadena's Keeran Murray (1:53.01) over the final 100 meter stretch to seal things up on Saturday.
Ligons does not own the state's top time at the distance. That honor belongs to JSerra Catholic's Alden Morales, who ran 1:49.91 in February. Santa Barbara's Andreas Dybdahl ran 1:50.97 at Arcadia.
But Morales has not run since April and Dybdahl opted for the 1,600m on Saturday, finishing fourth at the distance.
Boys 800 meter Run D3
Finals
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NAME YR TEAM MARK H# WIND
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1 Ambodai Ligons 12 Cathedral (SS) 1:51.32 1
2 Alex Naehu 12 Palos Verdes (SS) 1:52.40 1
3 Keeran Murray 12 South Pasadena (SS) 1:53.01 1
4 Grant Sykes 12 Harvard Westlake (SS) 1:55.44 1
5 Jack Burnett 10 JSerra Catholic (SS) 1:55.73 1
6 Michael Mackiewicz 12 Palos Verdes (SS) 1:55.96 1
7 Luke Metcalf 12 St. Francis (SS) 1:56.01 1
8 Darrick Jacob 12 Agoura (SS) 1:56.01 1
9 Parker Herbert 12 Santa Margarita (SS) 2:05.09 1
Photo Credit: Raymond Tran/MileSplit