By Ed Piper
La Jolla's Payton Smith streaked to second place in the Womens Invitational 400 Meters, and sixth in the Womens Invitational 200 Meters at the Arcadia Invitational Sat., April 8.
The Viking junior's time in the 400 was 54.12a seconds ("a" for automatic timing). Smith's clocking in the 200 was 24.59.
Smith was second in the 400 only to Joelle Trepagnier of Culver City, who ran half a second faster (53.56).
The winner of the 200 was Mia Brahe-Pedersen of Lake Oswego (23.01).
Viking head coach Paul Byrne, who did not attend the Arcadia meet, commented: "Payton's 400, great race. She ran a very good tactical race and it showed with her PR (personal record).
"She came back with just 30 or 40 minutes rest and ran a great 200, only 0.5 second off her wind-aided PR.
"You can't ask for a better performance."
Meanwhile, in the Sprint Medal Relay 1600 Invitational race, Smith and three teammates finished fourth in the prestigious field. Entrants run 200, 200, then 400, and 800. La Jolla's final time was 4:06.83.
The other Vikings in the relay included Olivia Smith, Elena Farrar, and Chiara Dailey.
Dailey, a freshman, finished ninth in the Freshman Girls Invitational Mile in 4:57.46.
Regarding Dailey, Byrne commented: "Chiara has been battling a slight injury and hasn't run in the last month, but ran a good mile in a very talented group in the invite, and also ran a very strong 2:12 split the night before (Friday) in the sprint medley.
"Olivia Smith, Elena Farrar, and Payton joined in that sprint medley for a very good time."
The Vikings' outstanding distance medley team ran 12:41.33 for 17th place among the top field.
In relation to the distance medley team, Byrne said, "Our distance medley group of Scarlett Slagter, Abby Plezia, Daphne Mayer, and Kirra Fisk (all juniors except Slagter, a senior) ran a great race as well, finishing in 17th, but only three seconds off their qualifying time that got them into the race which included Chiara."
In all, Byrne concluded, "Very proud of all eight girls that made the trip up north. Every event we were entered in was an invite heat, and they all performed great and represented LJ well. And with the exception of Scarlett, all underclassmen!"
The Arcadia Invitational is an annual meet in greater L.A. in which top athletes from high school across the state and region compete. Payton's potential is only now being reached, as she matures in her later years in high school and records times like these in major meets against elite competitors.
Her promise has always been there, as in her earlier years at La Jolla she set times in the sprints that boded well for the future if she could continue to grow and train, and stay healthy.
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