It’s called “The Masters Meet.”
This has been a season of masterful performances by the sprinters and relay teams on the Rosary and Servite track and field teams.
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The CIF Southern Section Masters Meet is the prelude for next week’s CIF State Championships in Clovis. The Masters Meet is Saturday at Moorpark High, and it serves as the qualifying meet for the state meet.
The top six finishers in the first heat for each event at the Masters Meet will advance to CIF State meet. At-large entries can qualify for the state meet based on performances from both heats.
Rosary and Servite are likely to exit the Masters Meet with several relay teams and individual sprinters ticketed for the state meet.
For Servite …
Benjamin Harris, a junior, has the No. 2 time in California this season in the 100 meters at 10.27 seconds (all times herein are wind-legal times). His 20.77 in the 200 is third-best in the state.
Sophomore Jorden Wells is No. 5 in the state in the 100 at 10.33. His twin brother Jace Wells is No. 5 in the state in the 200 at 20.85 seconds. Jorden is No. 9 in California at 20.90.
Sophomore Kamil Pelovello is No. 10 in California in the 200 at 20.97. Pelovello is No. 30 in the state in the 100 at 10.56.
Jaelen Hunter, sophomore, is second in the state in the 400 at 46.36 seconds. Jace Wells’ 400 time of 47.01 is sixth-best in California.
Robert Gardner, a junior, qualified for the Masters in the 100 with his 10.49 wind-aided time at last week’s CIF-SS finals.
The Friars 4×100 relay team this season became the first in the state to break 40 seconds. The foursome’s 39.70 seconds under the bright lights of the Arcadia Invitational is the best time in the nation this season. In order the 4×100 team is Jace, Jorden, Pelovello and Harris.
Servite has the best 4×400 time in the state this season (3 minutes, 10.33 seconds). That is also No. 5 in the nation this season. The order of runners: Jace, Jordan, Pelovello and Hunter.
For Rosary …
Maliyah Collins, a sophomore, won the 100 and 200 in Division 4 at last week’s CIF Southern Section finals to help the Royals win the Division 4 team championship. Collins’ 23.35 seconds in the 200 is the No. 1 time in California this season. Her best in the 100 (11.70 seconds) is the eighth-best time in the state this season.
Justine Wilson, a senior, has a 23.55 time in the 200. That is the fifth-best time in California and is the Orange County record. (The set the previous county record in the event last season, 23.73.) Wilson’s 54.43 in the 400 is California’s seventh-fastest this season. She is going to the University of Illinois on a track scholarship.
Sophomore Tra’Via Flournoy’s 200 time of 24.13 is No. 12 in the state.
The 4×100 relay team set the Orange County record of 44.23 seconds at Arcadia this season. That’s also the top time in the state. The Royals’ order: Flournoy, Wilson, Pfeiffer Lee and Collins.
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The 4×400 team set the county record of 3:45.30, breaking the record of 3:45.44 set by Rosary last year. That’s the second-best tie in California. The baton is carried by: Flournoy, Lee, Collins and Wilson.
The Royals also have a couple of good ones in the jumping events – twins Amaya and Jada Faison, who will be going to Cal for soccer. Jada’s long jump mark of 19 feet, 10 inches is the No. 9 mark in California. Amaya is No. 2 in the county in the triple jump at 38 feet, 4.5 inches.
The challenge with the CIF-SS Masters meet, whatever the event, is to perform well enough to qualify for the CIF State meet, but not overdo it so that the energy tank is anything less than full for Clovis.
Rosary and Servite track and field head coach Brandon Thomas has a plan for that. That plan is to not change the plan.
“We’ve been doing everything pretty much the same,” Thomas said this week. “Keep healthy, stay fresh and be ready to compete. As long as we stay with what we’ve been doing, we should be fine.”
Thomas’ son, Max Thomas, was the Orange County boys track and field athlete of the year four seasons ago at Servite when he set the county record in the 200 at 20.68. Max went on to run at USC and finished second in the 100 in the NCAA Championships. Max turned pro last year. Last month he ran the 100 in 9.90, the second-fastest time in the world this season. Max sometimes shows up at Servite to do a bit of coaching.
Pelovello explained how a week’s schedule of training sessions is broken down much like a race is broken down. There is a “blocks” day, when the focus is on exploding out of the starting blocks. An “accelerations” day, which by title is self-explanatory.
“We take our practices as seriously as we take our meets,” Pelovello said. “The meets are the easy part. The things we do in practice are harder, because the way you run in practice is the way you’ll run in meets.”
Many things can go wrong in a relay race – an unsure transfer of the baton perhaps the most common. There have to be other connections that go beyond handing the baton to the next runner.
Wilson said the Rosary relay teams have that.
“We’re a sisterhood and not just a team,” Wilson said. “We’re really close. We’re around each other all the time at school.
“We always have each other, and we’re always pushing each other to get better.”
Some of the Servite guys have run in club track together for a long time. Pelovello said he first met Jaelen Hunter when they were 9 years old.
“It’s amazing that we’re doing the things we’re doing right now,” Pelovello said. “It’s incredible.”
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Incredible masters, indeed.