Sea Hawks' Relay a Surprise - Even to the Team

They smashed it, obliterated it, and in the process the Redondo Union High boys 4x400-meter relay team left a discernible smudge in the school record book.

Less than a week after running a time of 3 minutes 20.39 seconds in the CIF Track and Field Divisional finals to qualify for one of the final slots in the CIF Masters track meet, the Sea Hawks searched for the white out after beating that 6-day-old school record by nearly four seconds.

Running in a scorching race that produced a bevy of the nation's fastest times turned in by high school relay teams in 2010, Redondo Union finished seventh in 3:16.93. Minutes after the race the Sea Hawks were moved up one place when Mater Dei was disqualified for a lane violation.

Now, it is on to Fresno for the California State Track and Field Championships June 4-5 at Clovis West High. The quartet of junior Simon Schermerhorn, junior Christian Bassman, senior Remington Besnoin and junior Brandon Boyd gained entry by comfortably achieving the state-qualifying time of 3:19.64. It is the first time in school history that Redondo Union has qualified in this event.

The performance shocked normally unflappable Sea Hawks' coach Bob Leetch, who hoped but was not entirely confident that his relay team would extend its season another week. But Leetch's optimism skyrocketed when he saw that Redondo Union was assigned to Lane 1.

"I knew once we got Lane 1, we were in,'' Leetch said.

Why?

Leetch said he was confident that he would get a solid opening leg from Schermerhorn, who ran his opening split in 49.9 seconds. When Bassman followed with another 49.9 leg, Redondo Union significantly was behind torrid pace setters Serra and Long Beach Poly. But at that point, the Sea Hawks were running against the clock.

"We had guys that kept us in the race early and the other two brought us in,'' Leetch said. "I didn't think they'd run 3:16. I thought that they could, though.''

Besnoin ran his third leg in 48.8 and then the Sea Hawks' three-sport standout, Boyd, ran a personal-best split of 48.1. As well as Redondo Union ran, it still was a whopping six seconds behind Serra, which leapfrogged to the top of the nation's 4x400 relay chart with a time of 3:10.41.

"I didn't want to let my team down,'' said Boyd, who plays point guard on the varsity basketball team and is a two-way starter at running back and safety in football. "It was a fast race. We've never been in a race this fast before. But this means that we just have to run faster at state.''

As bubbly as Leetch was at the conclusion of the race, even he could not have envisioned this happening two weeks ago.

"We barely made it out of (the CIF) prelims,'' Schermerhorn said. "I thought that the (CIF) finals would be our last race of the year.''

That in itself is quite an achievement because for years, the Southern Section has been the state's strongest overall in track and field. "If you make the (CIF) finals in the Southern Section, that's a big deal,'' Leetch said. "It's very significant.''

Now, Redondo Union's 4x400 group has at least one more race to run in Friday's qualifying heats. But if the Sea Hawks can improve their time again, it could allow them to slip into Saturday's finals. Boyd vowed to do his part.

"I guess I'm going to have to run a 47 on my split,'' he said.