Oak Park relay team off to a blazing start

By Kyle Jorrey jorrey@theacorn.com

Though a shot at the ultimate goal is still a month away, the members of Oak Park’s 4 x 800-meter relay team can already chalk up their performance at this year’s Pasadena Games as a big step in the right direction.

Racing heads up against a team from Long Beach’s Woodrow Wilson High School, ranked among the best in the nation, the foursome from Oak Park finished just eight seconds behind with a time of 9:41:19, good enough for silver medals at the March 26 event.

"They gave the national leading team a heck of a run," head coach Kevin Smith said. "We had them the first two legs, they caught us on the third, and they nearly pulled away on the fourth."

The four runners on the 4 x 800 relay team are senior Tatiana Camacho, junior Kelsey Connor, freshman Courtney Lightfoot and freshman Marissa Diehle.

Their time at Pasadena was good enough to put the group at second place on Oak Park’s all-time list, only seven seconds off the record of 9:35:37 set last year by Camacho, Connor, Lauren Morales and Yahr Morales. With plenty of time left until the May. 15 CIF Prelims, Smith said he can’t help but like the team’s chance, along with the rest of the Eagle track team.

"We have ambitious goals laid out, especially for the first three girls, Kelsea (Conner), Camacho and Courtney Lightfoot," Smith said. "With Marissa (Diehle) being such a novice, I don’t think its fair to burden her with a lot of goals . . . But she’s certainly caught the bug. . . . She’s just exploded."

Unlike the first three, Diehle didn’t run for the school’s cross country team in the fall, but she’s proven early on to have the natural makings of a distance runner.

Smith, well-known for his powers of persuasion, jokingly said assistant coach J.J. Castner was to blame for letting young Diehle slip through their fingers the first semester.

"That’s what I’ve been asking Coach Kastnor," Smith said. "She was sitting in the front of his class.

Also shining individually at Pasadena, Camacho took fourth in the girls’ 1600 (better known as the mile) with a time of 5:22:54. Her coach has hopes for her to finish right at five minutes before the end of the season.

"This is the end of a decorated career for Tatianna and we’re thinking about a real big finish," Smith said.

Other top 10 varsity finishes at Pasadena for the Eagles were: Connor, sixth in 800; Lightfoot, eighth in 3000; Ken Brook, ninth in 1600; and the boys’ 4 x 400 team, who got eighth.

Next up for many of the aforementioned runners is the Arcadia Invitational going on this weekend April 8 and 9. Most will compete in the distance medley against some of the top teams in the entire state and the nation.

Even while they are relocated because of the ongoing construction of the school‘s long-awaited all-weather track, scheduled to be completed some time at the end of the season, the Oak Park track team seems satisfied to make do with all of the natural running surfaces in the area. The Agoura track is another popular option.

"We’ve just bounced around from place-to-place," Smith said. "We’re flexible."

And fast.