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Fryer: Trabuco Hills Invitational an important step for track standouts

March 31, 2023

The high school track and field season has had some fine meets that have yielded fine marks.

The meat of the season starts this weekend.

The Trabuco Hills Invitational being held Friday and Saturday at Trabuco Hills High is worth watching for many reasons, particularly this one – Rodrick Pleasant is scheduled to make his season debut.

Pleasant, a senior at Serra of Gardena, set a state record in the 100 meters with a time of 10.14 seconds at last year’s CIF Southern Section Masters Meet, the world’s second-fastest wind-legal time run by a 17-year-old in the history of the event. He also won the 100 and 200 at the CIF State Championships last season.

Pleasant is also a football standout, and signed with Oregon, where he plans to be compete in track and football.

The “S” on the front of Pleasant’s track jersey is for “Serra” but it looks like the “S” on Superman’s uniform and that seems appropriate enough.

Pleasant will be among the nine runners in the field for the 100 that is set to go at 10:40 a.m. Saturday. It will be the first of 15 heats in the boys varsity 100 Saturday – the best time from the 15 races will be the 100 champion. Also in Pleasant’s group will be Los Alamitos sophomore Devin Bragg, who was last year’s CIF-SS Division 1 100 champion at 10.35.

Bragg recently returned to Los Alamitos after attending Sierra Canyon for several months.

Rodrick Pleasant (No. 5) of Serra wins the boys 100 meters with a state record-setting time of 10.14 as Devin Bragg of Los Alamitos, left, finished third and Max Thomas of Servite finished fourth at the CIF-SS Track and Field Masters Meet at Moorpark High School on Saturday, May 21, 2022. ( Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Bragg and Pleasant also are entered in the 200 for a head-to-head clash in the first of that event’s 14 sections.

Another Serra athlete scheduled to run at Trabuco, Serra senior Brazil Neal, was 200 champion at last year’s CIF State meet at 23.68. She was second in the 100 at 11.57.

Some of Orange County’s season leaders are in various events. Santa Margarita senior Lidia Major is in the 300 hurdles. Her time of 44.46 is the best in the county this year. Santa Margarita senior Roman Mendoza is in the boys 300 hurdles. His 37.91 is the county’s best in that one.

Fountain Valley senior Jonathan Yu takes his county-leading mark of 45 feet, 2.25 inches into the triple jump.

The girls long jump has two Mission Viejo standouts, seniors Jada Gatlin and Emily Psarras. Also in that event is Jada Faison, one of the impressive freshman girls track and field athletes at Rosary.

The meet begins Friday at 3 p.m. with Friday’s Distance Carnival for the 800, 1,600 and 3,200. Saturday’s schedule starts with girls frosh-soph 100 hurdles at 9 a.m. Parking is plentiful at Trabuco Hills High School.

Admission is $9 for adults, $6 for adults 70 and older and for high school students and $3 for all others.

And coming up is the Arcadia Invitational on April 7 and 8 and the Orange County Championships on April 15 and the Mt. SAC Relays on April 14 and 15.

And away we go …

NOTES

Orange County boys basketball player of the year Brandon Benjamin said he transferred from Canyon to Mater Dei to broaden his skills and to get more exposure. As for the exposure reason, Canyon did play this past season in The Classic at Damien, Southern California’s best boys basketball tournament, and in that tournament’s top division, Platinum Division. …

Memory says that Benjamin is the only O.C. boys basketball player to transfer out of his school in the same school year in which he was the county player of the year. …

Among the players it was difficult to not find a place for on the All-Orange County boys basketball team are Tyler Howard of Canyon, Cooper Stearns of Irvine, Alex Stewart of Pacifica Christian, Isaiah Tolmaire of Mission Viejo and Owen Verna of Mater Dei. …

Josh Beaty is the new boys basketball coach at Fountain Valley. Beaty coached Crean Lutheran to a CIF-SS championship in 2018 and most recently coached at Buena Park. He replaces Roger Holmes, who coached the Barons for just the 2022-23 season and will continue as athletic director there. …

The Loara Tournament baseball championship game finally will be played – and how often have we seen this group of words this season – weather and field conditions permitting, Friday at 3 p.m. at Brookhurst Park in Anaheim. Pacifica and Villa Park advanced to the tournament’s championship game. …

The Michelle Carew Classic, which veteran sportswriter Harold Abend calls “the grandmother of all softball tournaments,” was scheduled to begin Wednesday but it’s another outdoor sport messed with by the weather. The tournament, named for the late daughter of all-time baseball great Rod Carew, includes many CalHiSports.com state top 25 teams like No. 1 St. Francis of Mountain View, No. 6 Los Alamitos, No. 7 Marina, No. 8 Orange Lutheran, No. 9 Esperanza and No. 10 Pacifica. The updated schedule can be found online at tourneymachine.com. …

Carissa Quereshi and Saiheron Preciado of Marina and Newport Harbor’s Eduarda Rodrigues were champions this past weekend at the High School Nationals girls wrestling tournament in Virginia. Kylee Golz was a second-place finisher. El Dorado’s Isaiah Quintero was a champion there in the boys tournament.

Orange County Register

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Fryer: Trabuco Hills Invitational an important step for track standouts

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