Rodrick Pleasant lives up to the hype, claims state titles in 100 and 200 meters

Rodrick Pleasant certainly lived up to expectations Saturday in the CIF state track and field finals at Buchanan High. The junior from Gardena Serra won his two sprint events in a display of speed that brought back memories of Vista Murrieta’s Michael Norman in 2015 and 2016.

The featured boys’ sprint race was supposed to be the 100 meters, but the 400 nearly stole the show as City Section champion Dijon Stanley from Granada Hills and Southern Section Division 2 winner Christopher Goode of Valencia West Ranch sought to deal Central’s Jeremiah Walker his first loss all season. Like the girls’ 100, the finish was a virtual dead heat but when the times were posted, Walker had prevailed in 47.49, two-hundredths of a second ahead of Goode and Stanley.

“Chris [Goode] and I were trying to do it — I wanted this to be my revenge tour,” said Stanley, who settled for third by thousandths of a second. “I only had one race left, so coming off the last turn I knew I had to give it everything I had. In the end, [Walker] got me again today.”

The biggest stage, however, belonged to Pleasant, who caused a national stir at the Southern Section Masters Meet by clocking a state-record 10.14 in the 100 to equal the world’s second-fastest wind-legal time ever by a 17-year-old. On Saturday, he proved that performance was no fluke with a 10.30 effort to beat top qualifier Jordan Washington of Long Beach Jordan and Max Thomas from Anaheim Servite, who each ran 10.44.

“I’m not satisfied yet,” Pleasant said. “It’s time to finish up strong.”

Pleasant was also favored in the 200, having run a personal-best 20.40 two weeks earlier in the Southern Section finals to break the state record for an 11th-grader and move into second on the all-time state list behind only Norman (20.14) in 2016. Once again, Pleasant took control from the start and won in 20.56.

As he had 24 hours earlier, Pleasant started his day by anchoring the Cavaliers’ 400 relay, which took second behind Central.

In the closest race of the day, Carson junior Reign Redmond won the girls’ 100 by one hundredth of second in 11.56 over Brazil Neal of Gardena Serra, who earlier led the Cavaliers to victory in the 400 relay with teammate Jordan Washington, who was third in the 100 in 11.62. A hush fell over the stadium crowd in the moments after the race as no one knew who had won until 20 seconds later when the official times appeared on the scoreboard. It was all heart for Redmond, who had ran a personal-best 11.45 in Friday’s preliminaries to break a City Section mark that had stood since 1977.

Redmond and Neal expected to duel again in the 200 an hour later, but Redmond was a late scratch and Neal took advantage, prevailing in a lifetime best 23.68 to propel the Cavaliers into first in the team standings. Aujane Luckey (23.97) of Long Beach Wilson, Eve Divinity (24.03) from Redondo and Adonijah Currie (24.05) of Santa Clarita Golden Valley were third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

Ventura freshman Sadie Engelhardt took the lead around the final turn to win the girls’ 1,600 in 4:36.67, beating a loaded field that included Duke-bound senior Dalia Frias (second in 4:37.09) of Manhattan Beach Mira Costa and Alabama signee Sam McDonnell of Newbury Park, who was third in 4:37.37.

“I kind of wanted to see how I felt at the beginning and was going to go to the front, but the wind was really gnarly on the backstretch so I gave them the lead,” Engelhardt said. “I switched positions and because we had the prelims yesterday this was the first time I could really run all-out today,”

Engelhardt tried to double back in the 800 but was out-kicked by North’s Mackenzie Brown, who won in 2:08.66. Englehardt was second in 2:09.64.

Newbury Park junior Aaron Sahlman, who was first in prelims, was fourth in the boys’ 800 finals in 1:51.42.