Ricks surges past Sahlman 1:49.19 to 1:50.86 in 800 showdown, Spradling leads six sub-9 efforts in 3,200 with 8:51.62 performance and Engelhardt clocks 4:41.06 in the girls mile; Avilez, Jeanneret and Seymour are also invitational winners 

By Pete Marshall for DyeStat

AZUSA, Calif. – A track and field meet consisting solely of distance races is designed to get elite results.

Saturday night’s Meet of Champions Distance Classic at chilly Azusa Pacific University accomplished that goal.

New state season bests were posted in four of the six events held Saturday, highlighted by the boys 800 meters, in addition to the mile and 3,200 meters, as well as the girls mile.

RESULTS | INTERVIEWS

The boys invitational 800 not only featured six runners under 1 minute, 52 seconds, but Long Beach Poly junior Xai Ricks came from behind to beat previous national leader Aaron Sahlman of Newbury Park, 1:49.19 to 1:50.86.

Ricks’ time was more than four seconds better than his previous PR, set just last week at the Laguna Beach Trophy Invitational.

“I was trying to stay within striking distance (of Sahlman),” Ricks said. “And try to close out in the last 200. I know he’s a good runner.”

Sahlman, a Northern Arizona-bound senior, said he just didn’t have enough kick in the final half lap.

“I wanted to take it out fast,” Sahlman said. “Try to dust everyone else and finish the best I could. I ran a 51-low first lap. I just couldn’t close out and my legs started dying out the last lap. I got second. That’s not bad.”

Sahlman feels he might need to work on his speed a little bit, but next time might also not go so fast in the first lap.

“Maybe not take it out 51 in the first lap, maybe take it out, 53, 54 and just cut down from there,” he said. “I can’t lead all the time if I want to run a PR. I need someone to take out the first lap and I can just sit behind him then kick the last lap.”

A year ago in the same meet, Sahlman set his PR in the event with a 1:48.91, finishing second to his older brother, Colin.

Sahlman’s teammate, Newbury Park senior Brayden Seymour, not only had a lifetime-best mark in the mile, but was also victorious, as his time of 4:08.67 shattered the state’s season best and his own PR, improving on his previous top mark of 4:11.07 from last year’s New Balance Nationals Outdoor meet in Philadelphia.

Seymour was edged by a 4:09.27 to 4:09.33 margin March 4 against Cathedral’s Emmanuel Perez in a thrilling 1,600 matchup at the Sound Running event at JSerra High, but continued to demonstrate his improvement at Azusa Pacific.

“The main goal was to come home with a win,” Seymour said. “This week I just wanted to finish first and hopefully get a PR. I’m super proud of it.”

Seymour said that the competitive race, which included three other competitors running sub-4:11 – Torrey Pines’ Ryan Thomas at 4:09.36 and Ventura’s Anthony Fast Horse at 4:10.16 and Micah Grossman at 4:10.80 – contributed to his impressive time.

“That helped me get through the last 200,” he said. “Because I know if I was by myself, I wouldn’t have been able to pick that up mentally. I knew those kids kick and they were going to come for me no matter what. I try not to look behind me, but I couldn’t do that on the home stretch.”

In the final race of the night, Clovis East’s Carter Spradling was one of six competitors running under nine minutes in the invitational 3200, winning the race in a meet-record 8:51.62, eclipsing the 2001 mark of 8:55.90 by Big Bear star Ryan Hall.

Spradling, a junior, improved on his old PR (set last year at the same meet) by nearly 10 seconds.

“I was super happy with the time,” he said. “That’s what I came here to do, run under nine minutes, as far as I could.”

Spradling liked that it was a tight pack for most of the race.

“It worked out pretty good that no one took it from the gun and was running way ahead of everybody the whole time,” he said. “It was definitely helpful that we were all in a pack.”

Ventura sophomore Sadie Engelhardt, who also owns the country’s best mark in the 3,200 at 9:51.49, set a national-leading outdoor mark in the mile, winning the invitational heat in 4:41.06.

In fact, the top four runners were all better than the previous state best in the shorter 1,600 race.

Allura Markow, an Oregon signee and the previous state leader in the 1,600, finished third in the mile Saturday in 4:44.56 behind Engelhardt and Oaks Christian’s Payton Godsey at 4:44.13.

“This past week has been pretty hard, so I kind of wanted to compete, throw down a fast first lap and see where I could go from there,” said Engelhardt, who won the New Balance Nationals Indoor mile title March 12 in Boston in 4:38.65.

Engelhardt competed in three events in a dual meet Thursday, so expectations were low Saturday.

Engelhardt said she chose to run the mile Saturday instead of the 3,200 because she ran the mile in the same meet last year and wanted to compare. Her time Saturday was behind her time at the meet last year, when former Mira Costa star Dalia Frias rallied past Engelhardt in the final 200 meters to prevail by a 4:35.06 to 4:36.63 margin.

Engelhardt, who achieved a 4:39.11 split for 1,600 meters Saturday, is still pursuing her mile PR of 4:35.16 from last year’s Arcadia Invitational.

Etiwanda senior Janelle Avilez won the invitational 3,200 in 10:32.85, crushing her previous PR of 11:16.38. She was in a lead pack of three – with Mira Costa’s Anna Chittenden (10:44.61) and Claremont’s Denise Chen (10:46.72) – for a large portion of the race, before pulling away and winning by more than 11 seconds.

“My coach told me going into the second (to last) lap, ‘You can take it. Do what you want Janelle.’ I was like, ‘OK. I’m taking it,’” she said.

Despite the time, Avilez still plans to focus on what she believes is her better event, the mile.

JSerra junior Georgia Jeanneret didn’t set a new state best in the 800, but did improve on her PR and CIF-Southern Section best time by running a 2:10.40 edging out Newport Harbor’s Keaton Robar at 2:10.82 and her teammate, Anastasia Snodgrass at 2:11.55.

“I just wanted to get out so I could lead it,” Jeanneret said. “I knew we needed to kick that last lap in, the whole lap, just to be able to hit 2:10, which I’ve been looking for in this race.”

JSerra also had sophomore Anne Elise Packard enjoy a significant breakthrough in the girls seeded mile, winning in 4:54.65 by holding off Corona Santiago’s Rylee Blade in 4:54.67.