Gardena High senior Cristhian Macias finished in second place in the boys’ 800-meter run at last Thursday’s CIF-Los Angeles City Section Track and Field Championships.
Gardena High senior Cristhian Macias finished in second place in the boys’ 800-meter run at last Thursday’s CIF-Los Angeles City Section Track and Field Championships.
Macias ended up City runner-up with a time of one minute and 58.43 seconds, but he felt he could do better. Macias won the Marine League 800 title at 1:57.21. He was bumped by another runner midway in the race as he fell behind. Macias had to rally back but fell short of junior winner Carlos Martin Del Campo of Sepulveda Monroe clocking 1:56.71. Macias’ second place finish put him in Friday and Saturday’s California State Championships at Buchanan High’s Memorial Stadium in Clovis. Friday’s prelims begin at 1 p.m. and Saturday’s championships start with field events at 4:30 p.m. and the running events at 6 p.m.
Carson’s girls dominated the meet, winning by 69 points, 134-65, over runner-up El Camino Real High from Woodland Hills. The Lady Colts were led by their balanced junior studded 4×100-meter relay that ran away from the field in an L.A. City Section record of 45.42. The team included Kaelin Roberts, Kenyla Miles, Autumn Wright and Kennedi Atkins. The previous record was 45.5 set in 1982 by Dorsey.
Kaelin Roberts captured the 200- and 400-meter dashes with times of 24.12 and 55.16, in order. Wright finished in second behind Roberts in both races. Kenyla Roberts captured the 100-meter dash in 11.86. She was part of both Carson relays, with the Lady Colts also winning the 4×400 timing 4:00.24.
Also in the girls’ division, senior Amber Hart of Narbonne won the shot put with a toss of 40 feet, 11 inches.
For the boys, Patrick Washington of Carson won the 300-meter in 38.84 and advanced to the state prelims. He was also part of the Colts’ 4×100 relay squad that placed second in 42.66 and advanced to state.
Carson, though, had a fine performance by sophomore Jonon Young who won the triple jump and finished second at the long jump, advancing to state in both events.
The feats helped the Colts finish third as a team with 34 points. Winning the team title in a runaway was Dorsey with 127.5 points to Reseda Cleveland with 36. Macias’ second place in the 800 gave Gardena a 15th place finish with eight points.
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Serra Track and Field
Girls 4×100 relay win highlights Serra at Masters
By Joe Snyder
Sports Editor
Serra High’s girls’ track and field team made a good statement in last Friday’s CIF-Southern Section Masters Track and Field Championships at Cerritos College.
The Lady Cavaliers’ 4×100-meter relay team of Madison Golden, Jasmin Reed, Jazmyne Frost and Kayla Pickens topped the field at 45.92 seconds and are seeking for Friday and Saturday’s California State Championships at Buchanan High’s Memorial Stadium in Clovis. That is because they will finally take on CIF-Los Angeles City champion Carson for a possible state title. The Colts’ time of 45.42 seconds is ranked No. 1 in California and second in the United States. Serra’s time is second in the state and sixth in the nation.
Reed, a junior, also advanced to the state meet in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. She finished fifth in the 100 clocking 12.04 seconds and was sixth in the 200 in 24.15.
Isaiah Diego-Williams also advanced in the 100 and 200. He had a fourth place finish in the 100 timing 10.69 in a very close race. He was just thousandths of a second behind third place Cole Dubots of Vista Murrieta, who was also clocked at 10.69. Diego-Williams finished only .02 of a second behind second place Antonio Mitchell, also from Vista Murrieta, clocking 10.67 and .08 of a second behind winner T.J. Brock of West Hills Chaminade (10.61). Diego-Williams run as fast as 10.59 in the 100. Diego-Williams also advanced in the 200 where he was fifth at 20.98. Diego-Williams had the experience of running against already Rio de Janeiro Olympic prospect Kevin Norman from Vista Murrieta. Running against a .1 of a mile head win, Norman won the 200 in his personal best time of 20.23, which is the already this year’s fastest time in the world in a head wind.
Also advancing was West Torrance junior Carson Bix in the 1,600-meter-run where he was 10th timing 4:14.32.
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Sports Scoop
Serra, Carson girls gear for relay showdown in state meet
By Joe Snyder
Sports Editor
Last week, the Serra and Carson High girls’ 4×100-meter relay teams made an expression as they dominated their field in last week’s CIF Track and Field Championships.
It started last Thursday at the CIF-Los Angeles City Championships at Birmingham High in Lake Balboa when the Lady Colts’ squad of Kaelin Roberts, Kenyla Miles, Autumn Wright and Kennedi Atkins, all junior transfers from traditional CIF-Southern Section power Long Beach Poly, rolled to the CIF-L.A. City Section title with a record setting time of 45.42 seconds, eclipsing the previous City Section record of 45.5 set in 1982 by Dorsey. Carson won by more than three seconds over second place Woodland Hills El Camino Real (48.84).
A day later at the CIF-Southern Section Masters Championships at Cerritos College, Serra High’s team of Madison Golden, Jasmin Reed, Jazmyne Frost and Kayla Pickens improved their season best with a time of 45.92 for the title. It was not quite the time that they wished but the squad feels that it can do a lot better. The Cavaliers’ top time is one-half of a second behind the Colts.
The two squads, though, are the tops in California and both are ranked in the United States’ top six with Carson second and Serra sixth.
Both will vie in Friday and Saturday’s California State Track and Field Championships at Buchanan High’s Memorial Stadium. First, each will most likely be in separate heats at Friday’s Prelims. They will have to be the top qualifiers. They will have to continue to have very good speed with outstanding passing of their batons. They are seeking to qualify and compete for the state championship on Saturday.
Both teams will have qualifiers in other races. Serra’s sprinters are led by junior Reed, who advanced to state in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Her times, though, were not that impressive with 12.04 in the 100 and 24.15 in the 200, but it was also in a light headwind that measured at .1 of a mile. For Carson, Kaelin Roberts won both the 200 and the 400 at the L.A. City Championships and has one of the nation’s top times at 53.47 seconds in the 400. She did that at the prestigious Arcadia Invitational on April 9. Kenyla Miles was second behind Roberts in both races as she also advances to the state meet. As a team, the Lady Colts ran away with the City title with 134 points to 65 for El Camino Real.
Gardena’s Cristhian Macias also advanced to the state meet but that was only because he finished second in the 800-meter run. His time of 1:58.43 is far above the state qualifying time of 1:52.64. Macias run 1:57.21 at the Marine League finals on May 6 at Carson High. He will definitely need to have overwhelmingly his best performance just to advance to the finals.
Ex-Serra athlete seeks Olympics: Former Serra High football player Manase Raikadroka is seeking to make the Olympics in boxing.
Raikadroka, who graduated from Serra in 2013, attempted to make the United States Olympic squad but failed to make the team. A native of Tonga, Raikadroka is working hard to make the Tongan National Team in the super-heavyweight (201 pounds and more) division. Currently, he is working out at the Sweep Science Gym in Hawthorne.
Currently, Raikadroka is the ninth ranked boxer in the U.S., according to USA Boxing.
Raikadroka weighed as much as 332 pounds when he was 15 years old. Currently he weighs 220.
Manase is brother is Inoke Raikadroka, Jr., an ex-Serra High football standout. Raikadroka grew up in Inglewood.
Could this be the Cubs year?—It has been 108 years since the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team won their last World Series; that was back in 1908.
Back in 1985 when the movie series, Back to the Future, was made, one of the movies went ahead to 2015 and, in one of the scenes, said “Cubs win World Series.” Unfortunately, Chicago was eliminated by the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series.
This year, as of last Sunday, the Cubs sport the best record at 34-14 for a .708 win-loss record. Recently, Chicago swept the Philadelphia Phillies but, before, lost two of three at home to the San Francisco Giants, who already won World Series on three consecutive even-number years; 2010, 2012 and 2014. Currently, the Cubs are hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers in a four-game series that will last through today. Chicago will also not need to go against Dodger ace Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw already pitched on Sunday against the Mets but he was not the winning pitcher since his relievers blew his lead. It was Dodger reliever Adam Liberatore that was the winning pitcher in the Dodgers’ 4-2 victory over New York.
As of Sunday, the Dodgers (27-24) are 4.5 points games behind the leader Giants (32-20) in the National League Western Division.
