WALNUT, CALIFORNIA, April 17–20 — Less than a fortnight after her meet record-breaking performance at Arcadia, Ventura’s Sadie Engelhardt took it a step further. She crushed the mile field at the Mt. SAC Relays to move from No. 5 on the all-time high school list to No. 3 with a 4:31.72 win. The performance lifted her to No. 4 on the U.S. U20 all-time list and broke the national federation record.
Some 22 hours later she anchored Ventura to the fastest-ever outdoor distance medley clocking.
From the get-go in the mile, Engelhardt meant business. She covered her first 200 in 32 seconds and passed 409m in 65.90, opening a 6-second gap. More of the same occurred in lap 2, as she crossed in 2:13.27 with 800 to go.
At the bell, the clock struck 3:21.68, meaning Engelhardt needed just a 73.55 to break Polly Plumer’s 4:35.24 federation standard that had stood since 1982. That was never in doubt, as the junior’s final circuit was in 70.05 to finish in 4:31.72. Engelhardt passed 1600 in 4:29.86. Runner-up position belonged to Chula Vista’s Chiara Dailey, who finished 16-plus seconds behind in 4:48.47.
“I’m really happy about it,” declared Engelhardt, ’23’s No. 1 All-America in the mile. “I think the warmup went really well before the race.”
She continued, “I kept reminding myself like, ‘Just like training, like that this is just like training.’ I really just wanted to stick on the pace of like 33ish per 200.”
Of her 65-point opening circuit, she said, “I was happy with it, just because I think it kinda gave me some leverage that I didn’t feel too bad on, after that first lap. So, I was kinda like we’ll I just knocked off a couple seconds off of the pace per lap that I wanted to go, so I knew that I had a little room if I started getting tired at the end.
When asked about what the plan was after 3 laps, she said, “Me and my coach had talked about that before — if I was in that 3:20 low mark or area, I’d be able to get the record. I really was just confident, and I was kinda doing the math in my head, I was like, ‘Oh I think I have to run like a 72 on this last lap’ to not get the record, so I was feeling pretty confident.”
In the DMR Engelhardt took the baton for the 1600m final leg 3.53 down to Rylee Blade of Santiago High (Corona, California). She caught Blade near the end of her first circuit (a 66-67-range split) and covered her next lap just under 70 seconds. Wearing a pink headband Engelhardt tapped out another 69-high circuit to reach 1200 in 10:14 and change.
On the final backstretch she raised the energy of her arm drive en route to a 34.3 split for the penultimate 200. Engelhardt passed two lapped runners entering the final curve then accelerated into a crisp 33.1 last half-lap — and just past the line hugs from her relay mates. Her 1600 split, easing up ever so slightly before the line, was 4:34.0.
The time: 11.21.85, faster than the previous outdoor best, 11:22.23 by California’s Harvard-Westlake in ’11. Only the top 2 teams at this winter’s New Balance Indoor have run faster.
In boys’ action, frosh Demare Dezeum (Alemany, Mission Hills) took a close 100 win from soph Brandon Arrington (Mt. Miguel, Spring Valley) 10.47–10.49 with Arrington doubling back for a 20.92 win in the 200 (wind -2.8). Neil Howard (Taconic Hills Central, Craryville, New York) came out on top in the 400H in 52.18.
The Ventura boys scored a couple of long relay wins: 4 x 1600, 17:23.17, and a DMR list leader, 9:59.51.
SELECT MT. SAC GIRLS RESULTS
Mile: 1. Sadie Engelhardt (Ventura) 4:31.72 (3, 3 HS) (c65-68-68-70).
DisMed: 1. Ventura 11:21.85 (3 HS—outdoor fastest) (True 3:36.4, Fakrogha 54.7, Curtis 2:16.8, Engelhardt 4:34.0).
Hept: 11. JaiCieonna Gero-Holt (Emerald Ridge, Puyallup, Wa) 5240 (14.61, 5-11½, 42-9, 25.92, 17-11½, 115-11, 2:42.82).
