Results: Paramount Relays

The results for the Paramount Relays held on Saturday March 5, 2011, are now posted in the Meet Results section in the column to the right. On the results page, scroll down and click on the link for the Paramount Relays, or to go straight to the results click here.

 

These are the preliminary meet results for the Redondo Union team members whose results have been reported so far.  These results will be reposted as soon as I receive the rest of the results either from the specific coaches or the athletes themselves. The official results have not been posted on ESPN-Rise as of 7:00 pm 3/6/11, so I have not been able to enter in the official finishing times. Since Brian Lindquist and I hand-timed each event, the current version of the results may be off slightly. I also don’t have the places entered in, that each team took, for most of the races. However, there is a lot of great info in the splits and PR listings (PR = Personal Record, each athlete’s best performance to date). I don’t know why Paramount has not posted the official results yet, or how much longer it might take, so I thought I may as well put out the data that I have so far.

 

The splits that are a part of the results are of two types. The first is the Relay Split which is the individual time of each runner in the relay. The Relay Splits are further divided into Lap Splits, which are the times for each lap. Lap Splits are only applicable in races where each runner travels at least one lap around the track in their portion of the race. Hand-timing from up in the stands does create some accuracy issues such that we are unable to provide splits for the shorter relays. The splits shown for the 100 meter legs in the 800 Sprint Medley relays are definitely suspect. We didn’t even try to get splits for the 4X100 relays.

 

Another difficulty was timing races with two watches when there were three Redondo teams in the event. The third team’s splits were not recorded by our wonderful Seiko paper-tape stop watches, but we were able to jot down their times as the runners completed each lap. You will notice that those were usually the C-Teams, and that their times are recorded without decimal places, unlike the others.

 

Despite difficulties and distractions, Brian and I only missed a few splits, and were able to get all the finishing times. And as indicated above, those finishing times will be adjusted to the official times once Paramount posts them.

 

In compiling these results, I only designated PR’s to an individual’s Relay Split if it was 800 meters or longer. Shorter distances in relays are usually faster due to the running start one gets in a relay. And for record purposes, relay split times do not count for school or class records. But I thought it would be good to acknowledge these best times for the individuals who achieved them.

 

There are already lots of great pictures from Coach Bob on the ESPN-Rise site. Check them out here. There should be some meet pictures on the Booster Club site soon too, click here to see them.

 

 

This, the first our our 2011 season relay meets, produced some great performances. Despite a rocky start that saw a couple of our Frosh-Soph hurdlers learn what it means to “eat the track”, our athletes, almost to a one, showed all the qualities that have made Redondo Track & Field the highly visible and closely watched program that it has become since the arrival of Head Coach Bob Leetch, six years ago. This team is highly competitive and will reach down for that something extra when challenged. They fight all the way through the finish line. No one gives up, no one throws in the towel. Even when you “eat the track” you still get up and finish the race with a best effort. The day’s most exciting moments came frequently, as Sea Hawks met those who challenged them on the final stretch, and prevailed.

 

Those best efforts produced 59 PRs.

 

All of our shot put and discus throwers had PRs. All of them. Taylor Bongiovanni bettered his shot put PR, set at the February All-Comers Meet, by over two feet with a throw of 44′ 8′. He also set a new PR in the discuss with a 122′ 2″ throw. Then he anchored the Thrower’s 4X100 relay to a third place finish. Nice job Coach Christine.

 

Will Tait lead off his Frosh-Soph 4X1600 relay team with a blazing 4:42.29 1600 PR that featured a 68.18 last 400. He then came back and anchored his Frosh-Soph Distance Medley (DMR) relay team with a 4:49.0 1600.

 

Fellow freshman, Dustin Herold, anchored the Frosh-Soph 4X1600 relay with a PR 4:51.27, returned to lead off the DMR with a 3:29.70 1200 PR, and still had enough left to burn up the track with a 54.33 anchor leg on the 4X400 relay, holding off a late stage challenger.

 

Paige Metcalf competed in five events. The Frosh-Soph 4X100, 800 Sprint Medley (28.54 for 200 meters), DMR (66.30 for 400), 4X400 (66.65), and the Frosh-Soph Long Jump (12′ 9″ which is a PR).

 

Another of our strong and durable athletes, Olivia Loveland, ran the 800 in two races (2:21.96 PR), then still had enough fuel in the tank to lead off the 4X400 with a 62.53 400. Teammate Brenna Sopp also ran a fast 800, then returned to deliver two of the three fastest 400s of our girls teams with a 62.33 400 leg in the DMR and a 62.59 to anchor the 4X400.

 

In the Varsity 4X800, Evan Malone-White lead off with a 1:59.69 PR, finally breaking the 2:00 barrier that had eluded him all last year. Handing off to Jordan Washington for a 2:11, who then passed the baton to Garrett Klatte for a 2:06.7, anchor man Dezhan Bland finished off the race, and the rest of the field with a 2:00.62, as the boys took first place. Perhaps stinging a bit from coming so close to breaking 2:00, Dezhan returned in the DMR to rectify that with a 1:59.53 800. Returning teammates Garrett and Jordan had already run 3:26. and 55.8 for the 1200 and 400 legs, so now it was Evan’s turn to take the baton the final 1600. What was shaping up to be a close race with the lead changing several times, turned out very nice. Evan came off the last turn and smoothly accelerated down the final straight-away to take the win by almost 15 meters with a 4:36.22 on a blazing 62.24 last lap. Some people just make it look so easy.

 

There were other instances of an impressive finishing kick on an anchor leg, but an especially memorable one was Evan Schermerhorn in the Frosh-Soph 4X1600. He was running for the C-Team, and not looking like he had much left as he made his way around the fourth lap. Then, off the final turn he opened up his stride and annihilated the poor kid next to him, who I’m sure thought he had it won.

 

A few relay teams produced four PRs. The boys Frosh-Soph 4X1600 relay A-Team and C-Team both had PR’s for every team member, as did the boys Varsity 4X800 B-Team. The Frosh-Soph Long Jump three-girl team all had PRs, as did the boys Varsity Shot Put and Discus teams as previously mentioned.

 

Three frosh-soph boys had two PRs each; Takehiro Yamaya, Serge Ganos and Dustin Herold. Four frosh-soph girls had two PRs each; Angelina Verduzco, Jenna Marshall, Jade Francis, and Ruth Barry. Two varsity girls had two PRs each; Kayla Ferron and Alexis Thibodeau.

 

Only one athlete PR’ed twice in the same event. Vera Gold ran a 6:24.0 1600 in the Frosh-Soph DMR, then came back in the 4X1600 to lower her PR to 6:22.0.

 

Not eligible for PR status were the shorter races. But with the varsity sprinters training through this week and not competing here, there were only a few sprint relay races. But even from the sampling in this meet, the Redondo girls are looking good with three frosh-soph under 70, and four varsity under 65 in the 400 meters.