Amoo Simply Masterful

There were no career bests or state-leading marks for Seth Amoo of Highland High in the Southern Section Masters Meet at Cerritos College in Norwalk on Friday night.

But the senior achieved an important milestone when he won the boys’ 200 meters in 21.00 and placed second in the 100 with a wind-aided 10.62 to advance to the state championships at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento on June 1-2.

Amoo’s time in the 200 was well off his state-leading mark of 20.82 set in the winning the Southern Section Division I title last Saturday and his 100 clocking left him one-hundredth of a second behind junior Matt Bruno of Trabuco Hills.

He advanced to the state championships for the first time after being sidelined with a strained right quadriceps muscle at the end of last season.

“It feels pretty good,” Amoo said. “Because I felt like I could have run these times last year.”

Amoo, who has signed with Arizona State, ran his typically strong turn in the 200 and defeated second-place Carlos Moore of Morningside by four-tenths of a second.

His start in the 100 wasn’t as good, but he closed well in the second half of the race.

“I felt good,” Amoo said of the 200. “I felt like [Moore] was making up ground on me when we came off the turn, but I think it might just have seemed that way because of the [staggered start].”

Seniors Jamil Smith of Palmdale and Mark Nevers of Oak Park also won boys’ events in the meet in which the top five finishers in each event advanced to the state championships, as did competitors who met at-large qualifying standards.

Smith, defending state champion in the triple jump and region record-holder at 50-10 3/4, won that event at 48-4 1/2 and finished fourth in the long jump with a wind-aided 23-8 1/4. He finished a nonqualifying seventh in the 110 high hurdles with a wind-aided 14.67.

Nevers, runner-up in the state Division IV cross-country final in November, notched his third school record in three races when he won the 3,200 in 9:07.38.

Junior Luke Llamas of Canyon was second in a career-best 9:09.73 while senior Robert Kubler of Crespi was fifth in a career-best 9:12.57.

Seniors Chris Foster of Ventura, Jon Williams of Notre Dame and Wes Felix of Valencia each qualified for the state meet in two events.

Foster placed second in the high hurdles in a wind-aided 13.98 and fourth in the 300 intermediates in a career-best 38.27.

Williams placed second in the intermediates in a school-record 37.42 and sixth in the high hurdles in a wind-aided 14.49.

Felix finished fourth in the 200 in 21.52 and tied for sixth in the 100 in a wind-aided 10.77.