By J. Ryan Franklin
Staff Writer
Two years ago, the winner of the Mustang boys track team’s meet against the Redondo Seahawks
at home came down to the outcome of the meet’s final event: the 4×400 meter. By a margin of less than a second, Redondo walked away with a win in both the event and the overall meet.
As the 4×400 team prepared to run against the Seahawks in the meet’s final event on April 22 at the Redondo track, it was hard not to believe in deja vu. With the score tied at 66-66, the winner of the boys 4×400 would walk away with the overall win for the race.
Senior Brett Douville began the 4×400 with juniors Dylan Gates, Kyle Hubbard and Corbin Gates following him. To say this event was close would be an understatement.
Redondo jumped off to an early lead, but Costa stayed competitive through the first three runners.
It was Hubbard’s smooth hand-off to Corbin Gates that put the Mustangs in the lead, and he maintained his position for the rest of the race. Costa’s winning time of 3:26 was just .56 seconds better than Redondo’s.
“We went into the race favored to lose, but that didn’t stop us from knowing that we could win,” Corbin Gates said. “I think we pulled off an incredible upset.”
Costa hosted West Torrance yesterday for the last meet of its regular season, but the results were unavailable at time of publication.
The Costa boys team won the Redondo meet 71-66 after the final race, improving its record to 8-2-0 overall and 2-1-0 in League. The girls, however, were not as fortunate. Redondo beat them, 89-47, and they are now 6-3-1 overall and 1-1-1 in Bay League.
Despite the loss, the girls team still had some highlights. Among those, Juniors Claire Barnett, Charlotte Barnett and Ashlee Dotson and sophomore Taylor Foland teamed up in the girls 4×400 race to pull out a close victory, and Mustang senior Aryn Foland won the girls one-mile at 5:01 along with the two-mile at 10:53.
“It’s an amazing feeling to be part of a group like ours,” Claire Barnett said. “Our whole team came together and cheered everyone on until the very end.”
In the 3200-meter race, junior Adam Perez stayed behind two Redondo runners in the first half. Come the second half, however, he surged past both runners for the win. His winning time of 9:46 added five points to the boys’ score.
Costa junior Clayton Chute started off the 4×100 race for the boys with junior Sean O’Connell, senior Jeff Peterson and junior Ben Kartub following after him. The boys were trailing when Redondo was disqualified for handing off the baton in the wrong zone, Costa’s win by default at 46.4 made the boys team’s dramatic
finish possible.
“It was great to pick up this win in such a big race,” Peterson said. “We don’t usually have a large amount of success in this event, and getting this win could not have happened at a better time.”
Senior Ryan Morrow won first place in the pole vaulting division, continuing his season’s success.
“We all went into it expecting a loss, but we pulled off a great upset,” Morrow said.
With this win, the Mustang boys sit with Peninsula and Redondo on top of the Bay League standings. The players and viewers were not the only ones who felt ecstatic about Costa’s win.
“We came into this meet hoping for the best and needing a perfect storm,” Costa coach Bob Fish said.
“There were some upsets that we weren’t planning, and I’m so proud of everyone.”
Leave a Reply