Jared Cohen
The race that everyone is talking about out of the Arcadia Invitational from Los Angeles on Friday night involved a relay team from the Valley of the Sun.
The Desert Vista girls 4×1600 team almost accomplished a miraculous comeback to win the event in the final seconds. Great Oak High School, from Temecula, California, got off to a monster lead with the first leg. Sophomore Mandy Davis for Desert Vista closed the about half of the gap on her leg and reigning 1600 meter state champion, Senior Dani Jones, almost erased a 8-10 meter deficit on her leg. Most of the damage coming during an incredible last lap. But just missed getting first place by a hair.
The Thunder’s 19:59 is the sixth fastest time in U.S. prep history. That means Great Oaks owns the fifth fastest time EVER. Dani Jones ran the final leg in 4:46.09, which is two seconds under the state record for the 1600 meters that she set last year. She made up 13 seconds on the Great Oak anchor. All of these girls and their teammates had individual races on Saturday. Congratulations to Baylee Jones, Mandy Davis, Haley Wolf and Dani Jones on an incredible effort.
For the video of this incredible race, click here.
