Despite fall by Landon Pretre, Menlo recovers behind Justin Pretre, who also prevails in 1,500 with another record run; Arrington, Bruce, Cheeks II, Chin, Cho, Davis-Lyric, Emerson, Ezike, Jorndal, Morgenfeld, Ricks, See and Stanley also win

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

ARCADIA – Menlo School’s 4x800-meter relay team, with one of the more stirring performances of the day, showed just how bad it wanted to win after the first leg Saturday at the California Winter Outdoor Championships.

On a day of solid performances, Menlo’s relay team and subsequent fall highlighted the boys finishes at Arcadia High.

Together, sophomore Landon Pretre and Will Hauser, plus seniors Aiden Deffner and Justin Pretre brought home one of two meet records set by male athletes.

INTERVIEWS | RESULTS

The team’s time was 7 minutes, 56.4 seconds, bettering Great Oak’s 2019 mark of 8:02.91. And it was in spectacular fashion as Landon Pretre fell just after the exchange from the first to second leg, twisting his ankle and putting himself on crutches afterward.

“I was coming down after the race, and handed the baton off to him,” Landon Pretre said of Hauser, the relay’s second runner. “I was pretty tired, so I fell off the track. As I was falling, I stepped on one of the cameras and twisted my ankle a bit.”

His teammates made sure he had something to celebrate – Landon Pretre said he’s going to be OK –  after defeating Great Oak by six seconds for the victory. The Wolfpack’s time, in fact, would have beaten their own meet record.

“It was definitely a physical battle and mental, as well,” Justin Pretre said. “Legs were really feeling it in that last 200, but I kept on hearing the announcer saying the meet record was right there. So I kind of decided to ignore my legs and keep going faster.”

Justin Pretre, in fact, was the only double event winner on the boys side, as he also won the 1,500 in a meet-record 3:54.37, outracing Palo Alto’s Grant Morgenfeld – who later won the 3,000 – by a little more than a second.

The performance for Menlo bodes well for the distances in the upcoming outdoor season. Hauser pointed out that his team was able to run well even while also competing in numerous other events.

“We’re all just kind of trying to do the best we can,” he said, “and hopefully all do well, which is exactly what happened, and we were able to get it done.”

The promise of a new outdoor season was an underlying theme as some fresh faces excelled. La Mesa Helix freshman Brandon Arrington won the 150 meters in 15.94 seconds, edging the more well-known Dijon Stanley of Granada Hills Charter in 15.95.

Arrington said he has a goal of running the 100 this year in 10.1 seconds. That’s lofty; then again, he just missed the 150 meet record Saturday.

“I was mainly focused on the curve,” he said of the unique sprint, “and trying to hit the curve and then just give it all I’ve got at the end.

“I was trying to beat the record (of 15.90, set by Servite’s Max Thomas last year), but I was five (hundredths) away from it.”

And Stanley did respond later in the day, winning the 300 meters in 33.09.

Rocklin Whitney senior Xavier Bruce was another who had a breakout victory Saturday by winning the 60 meters in 6.88 seconds.

Servite senior Alex Skalmowski was second in 6.958, and Roosevelt senior Tony Smith was third in 6.959. Arrington was fourth in 6.960.

“My job was just get out of everyone as fast as I could and then just maintain the last 30 meters,” Bruce said.

He liked having a respectable showing in the southern half of the state.

“It feels good, considering there’s a bunch of Southern California people that can run really fast,” Bruce said.

JSerra senior Brendon See, who will compete next year for Oklahoma, just missed a sweep of the throwing events. He won the weight throw in 68 feet, 10 inches (20.98m) but finished second in the shot put to Heritage Christian senior Brendon Cho with a mark of 56-4.25 (17.17m). Cho prevailed with a 58-8.75 (17.90m) performance.

Long Beach Poly junior Xai Ricks also came close to a double win, as he set a meet record in the 600 meters in 1:16.13 and came a close second to Stanley in the 300 by clocking 33.23.

Another JSerra senior, Josh Jorndal, improved on his previous best by more than a foot in winning the long jump. His mark of 23-5.50 (7.15m) also won Saturday by almost a foot over second-place Kingsley Okoronkwo of Christopher at 22-6 (6.85m).

“Honestly, I think it’s football,” Jorndal said. “The football grind of the season was big. I was in the weight room every day.”

Jorndal said he plans to be at next month’s New Balance Nationals Indoor in Boston.

Sage Creek junior Jacob Emerson cleared 16 feet Saturday and took three attempts at what would’ve been a meet record mark of 16-3.25. He came up short, but still got a solid victory at 16-0.25 (4.88m).

Other strong relays Saturday were run by San Diego Patrick Henry, which won the distance medley in 10:51.84.

Roosevelt outlegged Serra to win the 4x200 in 1:29.08. Thousand Oaks prevailed in the meet-ending 800 sprint medley relay in 1:35.0.

Rounding out Saturday’s winners on the boys side were Upland’s Davis Davis-Lyric in the 60 hurdles (8.06), Moorpark senior Victor Ezike in the high jump (6-6/1.98m) – based on fewer attempts to prevail against San Clemente’s Griffin Schwab – and Mission Bay’s Brandon Cheeks II won the triple jump (46-0/14.02m)

Santa Barbara San Marcos senior Lucas Chin won the pentathlon with 3,150 points.