Los Alamitos' Thomas Heib takes second in 800 at state track finals

A solid day of racing for the 10 Press-Telegram area entries in the CIF State Track & Field championships was highlighted by a sensational second-place finish from Los Alamitos senior Thomas Heib in the 800 meters.

Heib, a senior, was the area’s top finisher at the state finals on Saturday. He ran step-for-step with Coor Due and Cameron Kunde for the first 400, then put on a burst to stay in second as Great Oak’s Isaac Cortes flew past the rest of the field, going from seventh to first in the final 200.

The Griffins also got nice finishes from Ashley Willingham and Alison Parsons. Willingham competed in the 400 and finished seventh with a time of 55.16 seconds (Carson’s Kaelin Roberts won in 52.28), while Parsons took fifth in the long jump with a best leap of 19 feet, 6.75 inches.

For Long Beach Poly, it was the Ariyoa Augustine show, as the sophomore made it to the finals in both sprints, as well as anchoring the Jackrabbits’ 4x100 relay. The relay finished fifth in 46.79, a slight step back from the season-PR of 46.1 they ran in Friday night’s prelims.

Augustine then took fifth place in both the 100 and the 200 to claim a pair of podium finishes in her sophomore season. Augustine finished the 200 in 23.94 and the 100 in 11.82.

She wasn’t the only Poly retuer to run in Saturday’s finals, as Zion Bowens, a junior, made the finals in the 400. In a race easily won by nation-leader Michael Norman, Bowens finished ninth in 48.72.

Paramount had a pair of Pirates competing in Clovis in the state finals, as Micqwuan Wright finished 12th in the triple jump with a leap of 45-09.50 and senior Ailini Williams finished fourth in the discus with a throw of 148-10.

The other area competitor on Saturday was Samantha Huerta of La Mirada, who took ninth in the mile with a time of 4:55.23.

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