Serra’s Neal blazes to state-best time in the 200 meters
Her run of 23.36 is one of many standout showings at Southern Section Masters Meet.
Survive and advance. This is what the CIF Southern Section Masters Meet is for, the conglomerate of divisional qualifiers that comes in the week between section finals and state, the main goal of star athletes such as Ventura’s Sadie Engelhardt simply to break the statenecessary mark and not push excessively.
And yet there was Gardena Serra’s Brazil Neal after the girls’ 200-meter dash, every ounce of energy expended and breaking down into tears as she stood by the results board at Moorpark High to hear her final time. The Oregon commit said when she runs, everything’s a blur. She knew she’d won the 200 but didn’t know her final time.
At first, she thought the announcer said she’d hit 23.9 seconds. Far off from her seeding time of 23.67, but fine, she thought. Enough to survive and advance.
Then she walked closer to the board, saw it read a personal-best 23.36 — good for the best time in the state — and then came the tears — from joy and pain.
“Everything hurts,” she said to friend and running superstar Rodrick Pleasant,
the Serra speedster who’d just finished the boys’ 200, as they limped in the general direction of the podium.
Survive and advance doesn’t apply for Neal and Pleasant, two seniors who’ve spent four years together defining a new generation of
Serra track greatness. There were just two meets left in their high school careers entering Saturday’s event, and they pushed until they gasped for air.
“I just want to come here and stamp my name,” Neal said. “And make sure people remember who I am.
“We just both want to make sure that people know who we are, want to make sure that people remember our name. Want to put Serra back on the map for track.”
A week after he sped to a wind-aided time of 10.09 seconds in the Southern Section finals of the boys’ 100 meters, Pleasant crossed the finish line in a wind-legal time of 10.14 seconds — tying the state record he’d set nearly a year ago at Moorpark. An hour later, he eked out a win in a crowded 200meter field with a time of 20.71.
“Let’s go, Superman!” a Serra parent yelled from the stands after Pleasant’s 200meter effort.
The pressure on Pleasant has grown immense, both within his program and from fans.
He denied interview requests after the 200-meter race, not happy with how he’d gotten out of the blocks, coach Christopher Mack said, even as he’d won two medals and tied history.
“The expectations of it all … I think that’s weighed on him at times,” Mack said. “Everyone’s expecting him to put on a show every time he runs. You can’t please everybody.”
Long Beach excels
Top Long Beach Poly runner Xai Ricks and a host of others starred at the Masters Meet. Ricks set a personal record in the boys’ 400 meters — bettering his third-best time in the state — with a mark of 46.50, also bringing home the final lap of the boys’ 4x400 relay to give Poly the win. Long Beach Wilson won the girls’ 4x100 relay to kick off the day, meanwhile, and senior Aujane Luckey put up the fifthfastest time in the nation with a 52.71 to take the girls’ 400.
Wilson’s 4x400 boys’ team, however, won’t advance to state after being disqualified for impeding Irvine Northwood’s lane.
Other standouts
Engelhardt won the girls’ 1,600 meters in a time of 4:46:02. … The Westlake Village Oaks Christian boys’ team won the 4x100 relay and junior Niya Clayton won the girls’ 100-meter dash with a personal-best 11.46. … Eastvale Roosevelt’s Cayden Roberson went from the last seed in the boys’ 300 hurdles to the winner with a time of 37.59.