By Mike Clark

It wasn’t an easy spring for Young senior Bryce Blythe.

“It’s definitely been a journey,” he said after sweeping the hurdles races in the Public League meet on May 16 at Hanson Stadium.

He won the 110-meter hurdles in a personal-best 15.12 seconds and the 300 hurdles in 38.95, .12 off the meet record.

“Battling through injury, battling through mental — just complexes,” Blythe added. “But … it’s definitely a gift to come out here and be able to perform.”

Blythe had hip flexor injuries in both hips as well as a hamstring issue.

“We worked through it,” he said. “But because of God, we prevailed and faced our challenges.”

The health issues overlapped the end of indoor and beginning of outdoor season.

“But I put the work in over time through physical therapy … so I could come out here and run this,” Blythe said.

He wasn’t sure what to expect at the beginning of the season, especially given the health issues he had to navigate.

“I didn’t know how it was gonna look,” Blythe said. “Of course, you wanna win. You don’t want to think of yourself as a loser. But it definitely was a bigger milestone than I was expecting.”

Kenwood senior Nicholas Segura swept the short sprints, winning the 100 in 10.91 and the 200 in 22.15. He also teamed with Tristan Harris, Adrian Smith and Jordan Rabb to win the 4×100 relay in 42.35.

In what had been an often rainy and chilly spring, this was a rare sunny and hot day.

“Obviously, it was a battle,” Segura said. “But I mean, we just have to fight through it. It’s nothing more than that. Just a little bit of adversity, we just have to fight through it.”

Lane dominated the middle and long distances en route to winning its first title since 2022 and 24th since 1980, 126.5-120.5 over three-time defending champ Kenwood. Young (116), Mather (47) and King (37) completed the top five teams.

The Champions had firsts from Quinn Anderson in the 800 (personal-best 1:57.09), Samuel Assefa in the 1,600 (personal-best 4:19.52) and Hugo Ayala in the 3,200 (9:37.15).

Like Segura, Assefa felt the heat.

“We were definitely all hurting,” he said of the distance runners. “I’m just glad I was able to come out with a win, (help) get us to a city title. The time wasn’t really what I wanted, but (under) the conditions and everything — it’s all good.”

Lane coach Kris Roof said his team’s depth was an advantage in the heat.

“Because of the size of our team, we always feel like we can spread it out a little bit to be fresh, especially in conditions like this,” he said. “But today we had to ask a couple guys to do things that we usually don’t, like Quinn (Anderson) in the (800) and the mile. That’s an insane double in the heat. And he was able to come back and fight, win the (800) and then fight for fourth in the (1.600).”

Lane also broke the meet record of 7:54.80 in the 4×800 relay, running 7:51.66. But the Champions finished second to Payton’s John Falciglia, Luis Urqiza, Declan Slavin and Tra’Monti Williams, who ran a season-best 7:50.94 for the day’s only meet record.

“Coming to the end of the season, we’re really in construction — getting that race together,” Williams said. “Today … was a standout time for us.”

Angel Ponce helped Prosser win a pair of relays. He joined Darnell Owens, Chris Smith and David Rodriguez for a season-best 3:25.07 in the 4×400 and teamed with Jayden Williams, Jarvis Terry and Rishaun Woodard for a season-best 1:35.70 in the sprint medley.

The other relay champ was Young’s 4×200. Aidan Matlock, Jackson Engleking, Jamire Spencer and Malcolm Bolden ran 1:30.21.

Also taking firsts were Young’s Jonathan Ijimakin in the 400 (personal-best 49.96), King’s Eric Watson in the high jump (6-3.5), Perspective-Leadership’s Tali Hassan in the long jump (personal-best 21.6.75), Kenwood’s David Steele in the triple jump (43-2.25), Mather’s Christian Perez in the discus (149-7) and Speer’s Brandon Trotter in the shot put (51-0.75).

Photos by Ashley Harris/OSA