Track Athletes Get a Chance to Shine at South Bay Championships

Mira Costa High School track and field coach Bob Fish is, in his words, “a lifer.” The man loves his sport, and Mira Costa is the better for it.

After sitting out a year of teaching and coaching due to some health problems, Fish is back for his 23rd year at Mira Costa—and he’s feeling as good as ever.

His health problems behind him, Fish isn’t just happy to be back in his element. He’s delighted to see that track and field, at least at the high school level, is doing well.

“We had a great turnout for the Mustang Relays,” Fish told Patch. “Bob [Leetch] had a great turnout for the Redondo Nike Invitational and I’m sure West will have a great turnout for the South Bay Championships.”

The South Bay Championships is Saturday at West. The 22-school event includes some of the top athletes from Mira Costa, Redondo Union, Palos Verdes and Peninsula.

“I would say it’s definitely alive and well in the South Bay,” Fish said.

While the Mustangs are having another solid season, there’s still much to look forward to, starting with this weekend’s South Bay Championships and then next week’s dual meet at Redondo.

Fish expects the girls dual meet to be for the Bay League title.

“Our girls and the Redondo girls should be extremely competitive,” Fish said. “That will be a great meet to decide the league champion.”

In the meantime, Mira Costa’s top individuals will get a chance to shine at West on Saturday night.

Ashlee Dotson will compete in the 100- and 200-meter races, as well as anchor the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.

Taylor Foland, Kirby Benson and Camille Mills will team with Dotson in the shorter relay, while Foland and the Barnett twins (Charlotte and Claire) will team with Dotson in the mile relay.

Fish thinks the mile relay could go under four minutes, which is a great time. 

Acacia Moore will run in the hurdles, where she’s gone 15.9 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles and 48.8 in the 300 hurdles.

Aryn Foland, who is coming back from injury and has tremendous talent, Shannon Hagedorn, Kelli Sugimoto and Jenna Tong have all run sub-5:20s in the mile.

Fish is hoping for sub-5:10s if the wind doesn’t play havoc with the distance races Saturday at West.

“Foland looked tremendous yesterday,” Fish said Thursday. “We’re not sure how far along she is, but she’s such a tough competitor. She’s state material if she’s healthy.”

Brett Douville, who ran 1:55 in the 800 last year but has focused on the mile this year, will run the 800 at West. Adam Perez, who has run 4:30 and 9:49 (in the two mile), will take on some of the area’s best distance runners.

Douville has the speed to be part of the mile relay, so it should be interesting to see if all his hard work in the mile will pay off in the 800 the rest of the season.

Teammate Dylan Gates, who has run 2:01, will push him in the 800. Douville, Gate, hurdler Kyle Hubbard and Corbin Gates will run in the mile relay, Fish said.

The Mustangs’ two top field-event athletes will compete at West. Ryan Morrow has cleared 14-9 in the pole vault. Football star J.R. Tavai has gone 53-2 in the shot put.

Redondo Rolling

Great new facilities and hard-working coaches have combined to help put spring sports on the upswing at Redondo Union High’s upgraded campus.

Nowhere is that more obvious than on the track, where Bob Leetch has done a great job building the boys and girls teams into powers in the Bay League.

For the first time in 15 years, Redondo will host Mira Costa in a dual meet April 22.

This is the first time it has made sense to host the meet at Redondo because Mira Costa’s facility was so much better until Redondo completed its multi-million dollar makeover.

“We’re doing fantastic,” Leetch said.

Leetch, a 1980 CIF champion at Redondo, went on to win a state title in the 1,500-meter run at El Camino College.

“Our boys and girls are both undefeated,” he told Patch. “We’re on a collision course with Mira Costa. That will be for the league dual meet title.”

Actually, Redondo is expected to defeat Mira Costa in the boys dual meet. But the girls dual meet, a battle of unbeaten teams, is up for grabs.

“Our teams are coming along. We’ve had a lot of sickness this year, but we’re getting healthy at the right time,” Leetch said. “We’ve got a lot of hopes for the rest of the year.”

“Things weren’t so pretty when I came here,” he added. “But now we have one of the best facilities in Southern California and we’ve got all these young kids taking advantage of it.”

Before Redondo hosts Mira Costa, some of its best athletes will take part in the South Bay Championships Saturday at West Torrance.

Senior Christian Bassman leads the sprinters. He has run 10.86 in the 100-meter dash. Senior Derrick Duran lends depth in the all-important speed events, where plenty of points are to be had in the relays, the 100, 200 and 400.

Dezhan Bland is, in Leetch’s words, having a fantastic year. He’s already run the mile in 4:21 and the 800 in a blazing 1:55.3. But sophomore Evan Malone-White is good, too, having run 4:19 and 1:56, times that make him one of the best young prep runners in the nation.

In the field events, Mahmud Hassan has done 20-feet, 3-inches in the long jump and 43-2 in the triple jump. Taylor Bongiovanni is solid in the weight events, going 47 feet in the shot put and 132 in the discus.

The girls team features a trifecta of sprint talent and some great distance runners. Shelby Bassman is the defending Bay League champion in the 100. Haley Miller was No. 2 last year, and senior Ruby Davis has turned in the top sprint times so far.

Erin South has run 60.5 in the 400. Olivia Loveland, a CIF threat in the hurdles, has run a 48.1 in the 300 low hurdles and a 2:19 in the 800.

Laura O’Neill, going to Cal on a partial scholarship, and Kelly Ryan, who is headed to UC Santa Barbara, are among Redondo’s top female distance runners. 

Kayla Ferron, who took the 800 at the Redondo Nike Invitational, is also extremely talented. So is cross country star Rachel Bush.

Then there’s Lyndsey Mull, who was third in the state in the mile last year (4:49). Factor in the developing Cara Ulizio in the mile and it’s no wonder Leetch smiles when he talks about his middle distance runners.

In the field events, Aundrea Yancy is a multi-talented athlete who earned team MVP honors last year. She has run 16.1 in the hurdles and turned in solid marks in the triple jump (35-5), long jump (16-6), high jump (5-2) and shot put (32-4). 

Other Area Stand-outs

Peninsula High’s Brailon Brown has run a 10.51 in the 100. He’s challenged on his own team by Victor Woo, who ran a 10.81 on Tuesday in Peninsula’s dual meet win over Mira Costa.

Palos Verdes’ Brendan Weaver stole the show at the Mustang Relays, setting a school record of 40.90 in the 300 hurdles. He also cleared 6-2 in the high jump. He should improve on those marks the rest of the season.

Palos Verdes Jonah Diaz made the CIF Masters Meet last year. Teammate and fellow distance runner Justin Unno is catching up to him this year. They should contribute to some special distance races at the Bay League championships.

In the girls sprints, Peninsula’s Kaylyn Taylor will challenge the league’s best after running 12.95. 

PV’s Erica Capellino and Rebecca Mehra will challenge the best Redondo and Mira Costa have to offer. And Keiko Hector has been mentioned here before. She’s a threat in several field events and the hurdles.