Wells-Anders Has Fast Day

The West Valley League track and field finals fell victim Friday to high expectations, some unfortunate occurrences and stiff head winds at Birmingham High.

The meet produced marks of 47.88 in the 400 meters, 14.03 in the 110 high hurdles and 41.84 in the 400 relay in the boys’ competition. Not to mention a 12-10 clearance in the girls’ pole vault.

However, the only performance that had spectators shaking their heads in awe was a 1:52.81 clocking by senior Chris Wells-Anders of El Camino Real in winning the boys’ 800.

Wells-Anders, runner-up in the state championships last year, moved to second on the state list with the second-fastest time of his career.

He also ran a strong third leg on a 400 relay team that finished third in a school-record 42.65. He ran a 47.8-second anchor leg on a 1,600 relay team that placed second in 3:23.36.

Yet the disqualification of Taft’s co-state leading boys’ team in the 400 relay and a hamstring injury to state 400 leader Jason Lovell of Cleveland dampened the proceedings.

Taft, which has run 41.30, was leading the relay but anchor runner Noah Smith took off early and was past the exchange zone when he received the baton from Peiman Lahsaei.

Birmingham placed first in a school-record 41.84. Taft finished second in 42.31 before being disqualified.

Lovell, the state leader in the 400 at 47.58, anchored Cleveland to a 42.32 clocking in the relay but felt pain in his left hamstring as he crossed the finish line.

The pain was evident at the end of the 400 as he crumpled to the infield after winning in 47.88.

“It’s just real sore,” Lovell said. “It’s not like I pulled anything. It’s just real, real sore.”

The injury forced Lovell to withdraw from the 200 and 1,600 relay, but he could still run those events in the City Section preliminaries at Birmingham on Thursday.

The top four finishers in each event automatically qualified for the preliminaries, but Lovell was designated as Cleveland’s extra entry in the boys’ meet. Taft’s extra entry is the 400 relay team.

Seniors Chris Morgan of Taft and Melissa Astete of Birmingham were other notable performers.

Morgan, defending state champion in the high hurdles, won that event in 14.03 while running into a breeze. He also won the long jump in 23-3 1/2 and placed third in the 100 in 11.01.

Astete, region record-holder in the girls’ pole vault at 13-0, won that event at 12-10 before missing three attempts at a national-outdoor record height of 13-5.