WALNUT — The annual Mt. SAC Relays took place at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut over the past week. This was the 62nd edition of the event that takes place at Hilmer Lodge Stadium everyhe middle of April. A handful of Inland high school athletes made the trip. These athletes are state leaders in their respective events, including a few who claimed invitational titles at last week’s Arcadia Invitational. The Community College Division took place Saturday, April 9, the Elite Division happened over a four-day period from April 13-16, the College and University Division was a three-day event from April 14-16 and the High School Division took place April 15-16.
The first edition of Mt. SAC Relays was organized back in 1959 and took place on April 24 and 25. This relay race was flourished by a track coach named Hilmer Lodge until his retirement in 1963. Moreover, the national record in 4x200m relay athletics had been set also at Mt. SAC Relays which remained unbreakable for more than 20 years, until 2015.
While there are countless events to comb through, this article will focus on just a handful.
In the Men’s 100m event, Oregon’s Micah Williams won first place while second and third place were acquired by Brandon Carnes and Mouhamadou Fall. The Men’s 200m relay went the way of Fred Kerley who finished the loop with the mark of 19.80 and gained first place while second place went to Murrieta native Michael Norman and third place was picked up by Rai Benjamin.
In Men’s 400m competition, the man who emerged as the winner of the race was Michael Cherry who finished at 44.28. Alison Dos Santos finished in second place in the same category while Bryce Deadmon finished in third place. For the Men’s 800m, after finishing the race Bryce Hoppel stood on the top of the podium while Ryan Sanchez and Erik Sowinski gained second and third place respectively.
The Inland Empire Track and Field championships were taking place the same weekend at Vista Murrieta High School and those results will be posted later this week. However, top-ranked Murrieta Mesa thrower Cade Moran was at the Mt. SAC Relays looking for another double win in the boys’ invitational shot put and discus. He won both events at Arcadia and has the top shot put mark in the nation this season (66 feet, 10 inches) and the state’s top mark in the discus (199-8). In Walnut, Moran did in fact win both yet again. He won the discus event with a throw of 200’6 in the High School division and the shot put with a mark of 65 feet, .5 inches.
Great Oak’s JC Stevenson also won a pair of titles at Arcadia and was looking to do the same in Walnut where he competed in the boys’ invitational long jump and triple jump. Stevenson has the state’s No. 1 mark in long jump (24- 9 1/2) and triple jump (48-6) this season but took second place with a jump of 23 feet, 6 1/4 inches. Stevenson did, however, claim first in the triple jump with a leap of 48 feet, 5 1/2 inches.
JP Raineri can be reached by email at sports@reedermedia.com.
