Carson’s Reign Redmond is a few inches closer to the story in the finale of the track

Reign of Redmond chasing his Carson High track teammates with bugs.

She admits it too. Easily. She will get distracted in training, pick up a bug with a stick, and run around terrorizing her teammates. One fine April day, the elder went so far as to throw an insect at one of the boys from the athletics team.

Fellows in the women’s sprint squad Carson love Redmond’s stupidity and fall with laughter. And you’d be forgiven if you looked at those Carson sprint girls and thought they weren’t focused. In competition they are free on the starting line, but in practice they are unstoppable forces of pure entropy, tickling each other one minute, trying to confuse each other the next.

“Probably a lot of people are looking at us and asking, ‘What are they doing?’” said Ta’Aja Fann, a junior sprinter who switched pre-season from Santa Clarita’s Golden Valley.

But underestimate these Colts and you’ll be treated to a Carson blue stripe blasting past and a bear hug storm. They know when to turn it off and on, Fann said. They were all busy ahead of the team and individual races at Friday’s state championship qualifiers at Buchanan High in Clovis. Redmond wasn’t playing with the bugs, but shaking her legs and furrowing her brows before shooting in the women’s 100m.

And they showed they were the best in the girls’ sprint categories, winning the 4×100 relay in 45.73 seconds, while Redmond accelerated to a time of 11.47 seconds in the third run of the girls’ 100m to lead the field.

It’s the first step in what will be a monumental achievement for Redmond and the city section, becoming the city’s first female athlete in history to win back-to-back state titles as she narrowly beat Gardena Serra’s Brazil Nile in last year’s final by a score of 11.56. .

“That would be amazing,” said Carson’s coach Amrit Lal, “because Rain is the funniest kid ever.”

Sr. helped raise a talented group of sprinters, also aided by sprint coach James Shannon’s new Olympic-style weightlifting training regimen. Fann and freshman Christina Gray advanced to the finals, along with Redmond, three Carson runners who made it in one of four runs.

“Trying to make a name for Carson – trying to represent the city as well, but also trying to represent ourselves,” Fann said in April of the group’s goals, “and get us on the map to be able to get to schools. “.

Granada Hills has added another touch of City pride as the boys’ team aims to become the city’s first state champion since Dorsey in 2005. a second faster than any other team, while bi-sports star Dijon Stanley clocked 46.66 in the junior 400m qualifiers and beat a crowded junior 200m field by a narrow margin.

Stanley’s biggest rivalry in the 400 evaporated as La Mesa Helix’s Adren Parker, seeded runner-up, did not enter and therefore would not advance to the finals. The next contender is Long Beach Poly’s Xai Ricks, who scored 46.68.

In the meantime, spectators will have to wait another day to see Serra’s Rodrik Pleasant attempt to break the 100m state record as he finished with a poor time of 10.36 and was 0.14 seconds ahead of everyone.