Undefeated Samohi Track Teams Enter 9 In Prestigious Invitational Meet

Five Boys, Four Girls Compete Against Athletes From Around U.S.

Patrick Siritara
Mirror contributing writer

   The Samohi track team sent nine athletes to participate in the Arcadia Invitational meet last Saturday. Seven competed in track events while two competed in field events.
   The annual event held at Arcadia High School is recognized as one of the biggest and most highly regarded high school track events of the year, second only to the Mt. SAC (Mt. San Antonio College) Invitational. The field has entries from over 3,000 athletes representing schools throughout the United States. 
   Coach Pat Cady was very excited to have had so many of his team members participating in the event. 
“We’re very happy to have nine people in there,” Cady mentioned in his interview. “To have that many there is pretty good. Most schools in our league usually only send about two or three.” Peninsula, Samohi’s closest rival, had eight in the field.
   Cady also elaborated on how highly esteemed this meet was. “You name it [another school], they’ll be there,” Cady remarked. “It’s probably the biggest high school track meet sponsored by an individual school. It’s very prestigious.” 
   The girls’ team had four representatives—Azziza Bledsoe, Medina Britt, and twins Laurie and Lindsay Mayer-Beug. Bledsoe qualified for the meet with times of 10.1 in the 100-meter dash and 26.1 in the 200-meter dash. Britt gained entry with a recorded jump of 17-2 in the long jump. Laurie and Lindsay Mayer-Beug both qualified for the 1600-meter run with times of 5:23 and 5:21, respectively. 
   On the boys’ side, Samohi sent Brandon Allen, Corey Linares, Lenny Ghaffarian, Derek Davis, and Glenn Bolan to the invitational. 
   Linares qualified for the 100-meter run with a time of 10.3 while Allen recorded a 10.6. Derek Davis was an alternate for the same event, but his time was not disclosed. Glenn Bolan gained entry by running a 1:59.08 in the 800-meter run, and Ghaffarian’s distance of 51-1/2 in the shot put met Arcadia’s requirements. 
   Samohi did very well in the meet. Lindsey and Lauren Mayer-Beug ran 5:12.32 and 5:19.07 in the 1600-meter run, respectively. Those times were the second and fourth best times in Samohi history. The twins were not the only record-setting athletes at the meet. The 4x100-meter relay team of Allen, Ruiz, Linares, and Davis established a new standard at Samohi with a blistering time of 42.14. 
   Other results included a 1:58.75 in the 800-meter run by Bolan and a 22.52 run by Linares in the 200-meter. In the 100-meter, Linares, Allen, and Davis ran times of 11.00, 11.21, and 11.47 respectively.
   In the field events, Britt had a distance of 16-5 in the long jump, while Ghaffarian recorded a 46-8 in the shot put.
   Samohi plans on sending athletes to the aforementioned Mt. SAC Invitational this Saturday. It has not yet been determined which athletes will be attending.