Muir Wins 400 Relay in 41.14, Moves Up to No. 3 on U.S. List

Pasadena Muir High School, which already had the top 400-meter relay time in California this year, moved up to No. 3 in the nation Saturday night by running the event in 41.14 seconds during the 44th annual Pasadena Games at Occidental College.

The Mustangs, whose previous best was 41.45, beat Simi Valley (42.15) and Duarte (42.24) in one of the featured events of the meet. Only Dallas Roosevelt and Dallas Carter have better times than the Muir foursome of Thomas Limbrick, Corey Ealy, Ricky Ervins and Tyrone Jeffries this year. The Dallas teams both clocked 40.9 about a week apart earlier this month.

“It is a surprise, but I expect this group will only get better,” Coach Bill Paul said. “It is early in the year, but the time doesn’t surprise me. We are the defending State champions and have two of the people back, although only one ran tonight.”

Ervins, a star running back on the Mustang football team that won the Coastal Conference title, and Jason Gray, like Ervins a junior, are the returnees. But Gray did not compete Saturday night because of a hamstring injury.

Muir also lowered its state-leading time in the 1,600 relay, winning in 3:17.60. Hawthorne was second in 3:19.98 and Duarte third in 3:20.46.

The Hawthorne girls’ 400-meter relay team earned the No. 2 spot in the country with a 46.48 clocking, good enough to beat the second-place Dorsey by almost three seconds. Sterling High of Houston has the top mark of 46.3.

In the girls’ 3,200, Darcy Arreola of La Mesa Grossmont won her showdown with Tracey Williams of El Monte Mountain View with a meet-record time of 10:36.05. Williams, a sophomore, finished second in 10:40.58, while Christy Farrell of Thousand Oaks was third in 10:41.14.

Later in the meet, Arreola came back to beat Farrell and Williams in the 1,600.

Locke’s Vincent Thompson set two new middle-distance standards in the meet by winning the 400 in 48.05 and the 800 in 1:52.35.