La Salle’s Daniel De La Torre, South Pasadena foursome headed to state

NORWALK — On an evening in which the Pasadena area sent seven track and field entrants to Friday’s CIF Southern Section Masters Meet, those athletes proved, well, masterful.

Five of the seven earned advancement to next week’s CIF State Track and Field Championships at Buchanan High in Clovis by either finishing in the top sixth or hitting a state at-large qualifying mark.

As expected, South Pasadena High’s Claire Kieffer-Wright and Laura Anuakpado and La Salle’s Daniel De La Torre led the way, as the trio advanced in two events each.

Friday’s start proved rather uneventful at first for Kieffer-Wright, the reigning state high jump champion, who breezed to an at-large qualifying mark of 5 feet, 5 inches and then decided not to continue, which ultimately gave her fourth place.

“I just hit 5-5. That’s all it took and that’s OK,” Kieffer-Wright said. “The focus was still the same, which was to qualify.”

Kieffer-Wright saved her energy for the evening’s final event, the girls’ 4x400-meter relay, in which she ran the lead leg and combined with second leg Kamia Rodil Willis, third leg Anika Renken and anchor Anuakpado for fifth place in a time of 3 minutes, 49.23 seconds.

“This was our goal, this is what we wanted to accomplish and we did it,” Renken said of qualifying to state.

As for Anuakpado, the relay marked the second time the anchor ran a 400-meter lap, as the senior took fourth in the 400 with a time of 56.45, much to her chagrin.

“I could have sprinted up over the last 200 and I just kind of got tired. I just saw girls passing me and I should have pushed myself harder,” Anuakpado said.

As for De La Torre, the highly-motivated UCLA-bound senior uncharacteristically took his foot off the throttle Friday night, perhaps to his benefit.

De La Torre was in second place in his opening 1,600-meter race through two laps and fifth heading into the final lap.

De La Torre maintained a steady pace over the final 200 meters as four competitors passed him en route to the senior taking ninth, but easily qualifying with a time of 4:13.64, which was comfortably ahead of the at-large mark of 4:16.38.

“I felt perfectly fresh when I was done and I don’t feel winded at all,” said De La Torre, who is known for pushing himself to the limit. “This has been a progression all up until now and now it’s time to run the big meet at state.”

De La Torre, who missed his graduation to attend the Masters Meet, also advanced in the 3,200, taking fourth in 9:06.54.

Even though South Pasadena’s Josh Wilson didn’t advance, the junior turned in a successful effort at the Masters Meet, as Wilson finished 11th in a new personal-best time of 9:18.04, which was off the at-large mark of 9:09.03.

“My goal was to get a new personal record. I thought if I did that, I’d have a chance to advance,” Wilson said. “But then these guys came out and all hit PR’s and I knew I wasn’t going to make it.”

Muir High’s Tierra Adams capped her junior campaign, one in which she won Pacific League titles in both the shot put and discus, with a 10th-place effort in the shot with a toss of 39 feet, 1 1/4 inches.

“It’s not my best, so that’s a little disappointing,” said Adams, who entered with a personal record of 43-3 set at the Pacific League finals. “There was also some pressure on me being the only athlete from Pasadena [public schools], but this was a great experience.”

Adams hit her top throw on the fourth of six attempts, but was unable to reach the state at-large mark of 41-5.