LJ track: Familiar names and newbies

Viking Payton Smith (left) takes a handoff

from teammate Ebony Crandle in a relay

at the Eastern League Finals May 6, 2022

at Canyon Hills High.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Viking tracksters have been alive and well--as evidenced by their results posted on Athletic.net--including meets with The Rock Academy March 2, Mission Bay March 9, Saints March 16, and the most recent: Morse on Thurs., March 23.

Kirra Fisk, La Jolla's fabulous two-miler, has continued to perform well in this, her junior year, for the Vikings, leading the 1600-meter parade in the Morse meet with her cohort and close classmate Daphne Mayer, their times, respectively, 5:36.40a and 5:36.82a.

Payton Smith, the elite Viking sprinter who is fun to watch during the winter soccer season as she out-legs a rival for the ball, then puts it in in a lightning-strike-quick score, then leaves the game, is alternating 100 and 200 legs in successive meets recently.

Against the Tigers, the junior burned a 12.25-second time (wind above allowable limits) before two Morse sprinters, then Viking Reese Martin (a sophomore) in 13:89 in fourth place, and teammate Ellie Levine (a junior) in 14.16 in fifth place.

Just two days (March 25) before this writing, Smith showed off her talents before a wider audience at the Mount Carmel Relays (at Mount Carmel High in Rancho Penasquitos) in the 200 meters.

At the Division 1 level, among San Diego's top competition, Payton ran the half-oval in 24.08 seconds, in a visible whisker ahead of Kayla McBride in 24.29, to finish first.

Kirra Fisk runs in the Division 3

Prelims at Mt. Miguel High

May 14, 2022.

Then, to really blow minds, the La Jolla runner doubled in the 400 meters in the Division 1 race and won the one-lap sprint in 54.85 seconds, over two seconds ahead of the next finisher. (The "a" after the time indicates automatic timing, LJHS head coach Paul Byrne informs me.)

"Running well, looking strong...poised to continue to improve," commented Byrne.

"Her marks at Mt. Carmel this Saturday broke school records on both 200 and 400," Byrne said Mon., March 27. "Next goal, (CIF) SD Section records in both."

At the St. Francis Invitational March 18, Fisk won the whole kit-and-caboodle in the 3,000 meters, winning it by a whopping 10-second margin in 10:21.90 (wind-aided).

Regarding both Fisk and Smith, the head coach observed approvingly, "Great marks so far this season."

Some newer names at La Jolla High pop up in the season's results, but we'll investigate those at a later time.

Later in the same Finals, Smith

takes off in a sprint.