Up close and photographic with masters, other stars at ‘Mt. SAC’

Michael Smith during his 2:01.

Michael Smith during his 2:01.

My wife had great access at Saturday’s Mt. SAC Relays, held at Cerritos College — where I ran the CIF 120-yard low hurdles 46 years ago. It was dirt back then, but the stands seem the same. Anyhoo, Chris Stone captured Ashton Eaton, Vashti Cunningham and a bearded Tyson Gay among other elites for this photo gallery. While I was off ordering In-N-Out burgers, Chris heard groans from the track and quickly snapped the photo below. The gent was taken off in a wheelchair, probably with a hamstring pull. Hope he’s recovering well. I’m still awaiting time to process video interviews with masters 100 and 800 winners, plus some slo-mo video of their finishes. In the meantime, enjoy these stills.

Injured sprinter is tended to at Mt. SAC Relays, held at Cerritos College

Injured sprinter is tended to at 58th Mt. SAC Relays, held at Cerritos College.

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April 20, 2016

8 Responses

  1. Steve Morris - April 20, 2016

    I think you meant the 180 yd low hurdles. When standing next to your starting blocks and looking at all those hurdles lined up on the straight away it looked like the 1/2 mile low hurdle race! In 1967 Jerry Proctor won the California State meet for John Muir H.S. Pasadena by winning both hurdle races (120 yd highs & 180 yd lows) plus the long jump. He was the first California High athlete to win 3 separate events in the state meet since Frank Wykoff (Glendale HS)in 1927.

  2. Ken Stone - April 20, 2016

    In fact, I meant the “C” 120 lows — 5 hurdles 20 yards apart. I was a sophomore at Valencia HS in 1970 when I set the (still-standing) record of 13.7 seconds. I later ran the 180 lows (on a turn) in 19.9 in Omaha.

  3. Christel Donley - April 21, 2016

    Steve, Frank Wykoff…. was he Hoover HS or Glendale HS?? just thinking.

    See you at Pasadena, June 4th

  4. bill harvey - April 21, 2016

    Christel – Steve has it right: Glendale HS

  5. Christel Donley - April 21, 2016

    Love it, just testing – remember, I coached at Hoover for 5 yrs… and then moved to Oxy!!

  6. Steve Morris - April 21, 2016

    Forrest Beaty was the famous sprinter out of Hoover High School (Glendale) in the early 1960’s. He ran a 9.4 100 yd and a 20.2 220 yd (straight away) He later went on to compete for Cal.

  7. Christel Donley - April 21, 2016

    Now I know who has time to check the blog,
    Steve and Bill – are you retired? smile
    But yes, it was Forrest_ I remember being at “awe” about those times. NO FAT.. smile again, and NO
    allweather track…. just like when I was a “youngster”, lightyears ago. I ran 12.7 for 100 m in mud and thought, I could make the Olympics. Smile again – or better, laugh.

  8. Norman hensley - October 31, 2016

    In 1957 at a track meet at Santa Monica high school,centennial high school sprinter and an African American,Preston griffin ran the hundred yard dash in
    9.3 breaking the high school word record.
    The officials would not recognize it saying that no one run that fast. It was pure racism.
    I was there

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