Distance Meet of Champions

Also, we will once again be giving out free adidas shoes during the day
at random, and also in our quest to break our own world records:
148 boys under 5:00 in the 1600
and
103 girls under 6:00 in the 1600

Shoes will be given out to the
50th boy under 5:00
100th boy under 5:00
149 boy under 5:00
the final boy under 5:00

50th girl under 6;00
75th girl under 6:00
104 girl under 6:00
and final girl under 6:00

Southern California’s top distance stars from the very best distance programs will meet this Saturday, March 20, in the adidas Meet of Champions Distance Classic to be held at Azusa Pacific University.

Full distance teams from Don Lugo, Canyon, Oak Park, Orange, Sultana, Ventura, Thousand Oaks, Torrey Pines, and 40 other schools will begin racing at 10:00 AM and will go all day and into night capped off with the Girls Invitational 3200 meters beginning at 8:45 PM and the Boys Varsity Invitational 3200 meters starting at 9:00 PM.

In the Boys Varsity race, Mohamed Trafeh of Duarte who cruised by at 9:13 for 3200 meters on his way to a 14:27 5000 meters last Saturday at Fullerton will face El Toro’s Brandon Bethke who on the same night set a new national record over 2000 meters running 5:22.69 at Irvine.

Raul Lara of Orange, Luis Media of Arroyo, Andrew Tachias of Covina, and Fitsum Tesfa of Don Lugo are also in the field of 20.

In the Girls 3200, the Lisa Pasciuto of Murrietta Valley will face off against Kelsey Delagardelle, Stacy Tabuena, and Danielle Varela of Sultana and Ventura’s Oriana Campbell and Tara Bryant, along with Erica Sahli of Villa Park and Brenda Cohen of Canyon.

Other great races should be the Invitational 1600s with Trafeh matching up against AJ Acosta from El Camino, Ryan Allen of Yucaipa, and Nathan Wolack and Ruben Rameriz of Don Lugo.

The winner of the Girls Invitational 1600 will probably have to dip under 5:00 minutes with Courtney Marshall of Newport Harbor, Monika Rothenburger of Dana Hills, Danielle Evans of Diamond Ranch, and Delagardelle, Tabuena, Varela, and Cohen heading up the field.

The Girls Invitational 1600 will go off at 4:20 PM and the Boys Varsity Invitational 1600 at 7:00 PM.

The Girls Invitational 800, which features Alysia Johnson of Canyon and Pasciuto of Murrietta Valley, will be run at 11:20 AM and the Boys Varsity Invitational 800 at 12:10 PM.

Along with these great invitational races, there will be several heats of the 400, 800, 1600 and 3200--all seeded by times, so every race will have a flying close finish.

Plus, there will be attempt at bettering the WORLD RECORD for most boys under 5:00 and most girls under 6:00 which was set last year when 148 boys broke 5:00 and 103 girls broke 6:00.

This is the tentative time schedule—Final schedule and entries will be available Thursday morning.