The 21st annual adidas Meet of Champions Distance Classic was held on Saturday, hosted by Azusa Pacific University. The evening featured the Dream Mile girls and boys invitational race. The winner of the Dream Mile varsity competitions qualified for the Jim Ryun Dream Mile that will be held during the adidas Grand Prix meet in New York in June.

The Dream Mile brings the top male and female high school runners in the country together in one race in the Grand Prix meet, which will also feature virtually every top American track athlete as well as others from around the world.

For CV’s Megan Melnyk, the night meant a chance to run with some of the very best in Southern California. Having run a noteworthy 2:22.72 at the Maurice Green Invitational, she felt confident in competing with the lead runners. Melnyk was able to take second place behind winner Sabrina Janes (2:16.42) from Saugus.

The girls were grouped closely together on the first lap resulting in a lot of physical contact.

“The 800 can be a physical race,” said Coach Mark Evans. “Melnyk did a great job. It was great experience for her … first time in a real physical race like that.”

Nick Beatty placed sixth in the section one 800m running his fastest time of 1:57.05.

Gable Collison placed eighth in the 3200m running 9:30.86. The winner was from Arroyo, Sam Garcia running 9:21.00 and Ruben Dominguez from Don Bosco Tech placed second (9.27.33).

“I am very pleased with their performances,” Evans said of the CV boys. “Nick’s best 800 was 1:58.9 in a dual meet against Arcadia last season.  He was under 2:00 one other time at the end of last season. This was a big drop for him. All performances were big [personal bests] for all of them. Gabe’s best 3200 last year was 9:47. He ran 9:35 at Maurice Green last week. Megan ran 2:19 last year and had a 2:18.9 earlier this season. These are very good times for this part of the season.”

The top three winners of the boys 1600 were all juniors this year.  Stockdale’s Blake Haney from Central division took first (4:12.36) followed by Southern Section Garrett Corcoran from Villa Park (4:13.45) and fellow SS David Luna of Indio (4:13.47).

The top three spots for the girls Dream Mile run were won by Southern Section competitors. Taking first was Kayla Ferron from Redondo Union (4:55.97), followed by Paige Canterbury from Dan Hills (4:57.25), and Kiara McIntosh of Paloma Valley (4:58.72).

  Leonard Coutin