Wolverines repeat in 800-meter sprint medley relay, run No. 2 time in meet history; Laguna Beach, Long Beach Poly, Long Beach Wilson, Loyola and Vista Murrieta also earn victories

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

As a state-qualifying track athlete, Harvard-Westlake CA senior Brayden Borquez has plenty of name recognition.
But he would like more, both for him and his school.

Borquez ran the anchor leg Friday night of the Wolverines’ 800-meter sprint medley relay, which ran 1 minute, 29.82 seconds at the 52nd Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High School, a time that ranked No. 2 in meet history, No. 2 in the country this year and No. 11 all-time nationally.

Harvard-Westlake’s win in the event highlighted the relays portion of the meet. A full slate of events, including nighttime invitational competition, is on tap for Saturday.

The Wolverines’ victory was eye-popping in a field that included Bullis School MD, Trabuco Hills CA and Long Beach Poly CA. Bullis was runner-up by nearly two full seconds (1:31.77).

And Friday marked Harvard-Westlake’s second consecutive 800 sprint medley victory at Arcadia, including a significant improvement from last year’s winning effort of 1:32.75.

“We’re all about the legacy,” Borquez said. “People don’t know our names sometimes, so we like to share who we are.”

Only Long Beach Poly in 2007, the first year the 800 medley was contested here, has run faster at Arcadia.

James Chung and sophomore Chase Harleston, the only underclassman of the group, started with the 100-meter legs. Josh Johnson ran the 200 leg before Borquez, who qualified for the CIF-State Championship last year in the 300 hurdles, surged ahead in the anchor 400 leg for the victory.

“The race gives the 400 such a big leg,” Chung said. “You know Brayden, he’s a beast. We just hand off to Brayden, first or second, and he can take it home. Complete faith in Brayden.”

While Harvard-Westlake impressed in the medley, the 4x1,600 saw one of the more bizarre finishes in recent memory.

The Laguna Beach CA quartet of seniors Ryan Smithers and Sebastian Fisher, junior Logan Brooks and sophomore Mateo Bianchi won in 17:27.0. During the final exchanges, the Sir Francis Drake CA and American Fork UT teams both tried passing the baton a lap early and were eventually disqualified.

“I just saw the two guys in front of me starting to veer off to the right (toward the waiting anchor runners),” Smithers said. “I don’t know why, but for some reason, they handed off.

“I looked at the clock, and it was 12-flat, so I decided not to hand off.”

It was a confusing scene in which some waiting runners thought they were supposed to get a baton, and some who were running questioned if they counted laps incorrectly.

One of those was Great Oak’s Chris Verdugo, who said he did nearly hand off to anchor Tyler Tickner a lap early.
“I was so close because I knew were on third lap,” Verdugo said. “But then in my head, I’m like, ‘Wait, did I miscount? What is happening?’

“Chris and I both looked at each other,” Tickner said. “And I had noticed it was still the third lap, so we both kind of went, ‘Stop, stop, keep going.’”

Great Oak wound up fourth in 17:39.51, behind runner-up West Ranch CA (17:32.59) and third-place Dana Hills CA (17:34.86).

In all, six relay teams from six different schools earned championships Friday night. Loyola’s hopes of setting a new Arcadia mark in the 4x800 fell just short, though seniors Konnor Parris and Roberto Ruelas, junior Anthony Stone and senior Mason Ratkovich – who held off a fast charge from Great Oak’s Verdugo – still won in 7:48.13.

“I picked it up with 300 left,” Ratkovich said. “And just hearing Great Oak coming up makes you want to push more and push harder.”

Long Beach Poly came out on top in the 4x200 relay, as DeAngelo Chester, Kenyon Reed, KeJuan Markham and Anthony Johnson ran 1:25.91.

Vista Murrieta CA claimed the 4x110 shuttle hurdles title as Nathan Coker, Nick Bianchi, Chris Granados and Hunter Escorcia won in 1:02.60. That included a rousing anchor leg in which Escorcia rallied to give the Broncos the win over Union Catholic NJ (1:02.88).

“Obviously, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do it,” Escorcia said. “But I gave it my best, and it happened.”

Long Beach Wilson CA earned the other crown Friday, with Seaver Cordoza, Collin Ellingboe, Andrew Richards and Armando Bryson winning the 1,600 sprint medley relay in 3:28.57.

Thompson Valley CO junior Dylan Schubert ran the fastest time in the three 3,200 sections contested Friday, clocking 9:12.16.

Following five events in the boys decathlon, Markus Rooth of Norway was the leader with 3,760 points and Derek Pekar of Ventura CA was second with 3,681 points. Pekar improved from his previous-best first-day score by more than 200 points.