Burnett excels indoors or out
USC senior follows NCAA indoor title in 60 with career-best performance in 100
Davonte Burnett of USC is on a roll.
The Trojan senior won the collegiate division of the men’s 100 meters in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays on Saturday with a personal best of 9.99 seconds.
That performance came five weeks after he won the 60-meter dash in the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Burnett led the field out of the blocks and extended his advantage all the way through the finish line as junior Marcellus Moore of Texas finished second in 10.27. Sophomore Shaun Maswanganyi of Houston, second in the NCAA Championships last year, placed third in 10.28.
Despite his huge margin of victory, Burnett said his race was not flawless.
“I started breaking down a little from 60 to 70 meters,” he said. “My feet weren’t underneath me. I didn’t want to do anything stupid so I just ran my race.”
Burnett, fifth in the 100 in the NCAA Championships last year, said he tries to look down the track during races.
“When I don’t look at anyone in the race and just focus on myself, I’m going to go out there and run the right time,” he said.
When asked what he thinks about during a race, he said maintaining his form is foremost on his mind.
“As long as you stay in form out there, you’re going to run the time that you need to run,” he said.
Quincy Watts, who is in his first year as the director of track and field at USC, said Burnett has had some little nagging injuries here and there, but he runs well in big meets.
“He’s always proven to be the guy who rises to the occasion,” Watts said. “He’s always at his best when the lights are on him.”
Some sprinters who excel in the 60 indoors do so primarily because they have great starts and are able to cross the finish line before sprinters with better top-end speed catch them.
Watts said that is not an issue with Burnett.
“He’s not only a 60 sprinter,” he said. “He has good top-end speed.”
Julien Alfred of Texas is a sprinter who is best known for her great start, but she also closed well in winning the women’s 100 a few minutes before Burnett won the men’s.
Alfred, a senior from St. Lucia who set a collegiate record of 7.04 in the 60 indoors, got off to her usual rocket start, but expanded her early advantage as the race progressed. Kemba Nelson of Oregon placed second in 11.09 and fellow senior Ezinne Abba of Cal Berkeley finished third in (11.12).
Clayton Fritsch of Sam Houston State and Anna Purchase of Cal were other collegians who turned in notable performances.
Fritsch won the elite division pole vault with a career best of 5.80 meters (19-0¼) that was the best collegiate mark in the nation this year. It also moved him into a four-way tie for ninth on the all-time collegiate performer list.
Purchase, a junior from England, won the collegiate women’s hammer throw with a toss of 69.56 (228-2).
In the high school meet, three relay teams from California’s Southern Section turned in noteworthy performances in winning their respective events.
The Upland team of seniors Delaney Crawford and DeQuan January, and juniors Davis Davis-Lyric and Kai Graves-Blanks won the boys’ shuttle hurdles relay in a state-record 56.77 to move to fifth on the all-time national list.
Newbury Park ran a state record of 9:55.24 to win the boys’ distance medley relay with the seventh-fastest prep time in U.S. history.
Junior Lex Young got Newbury Park off to a good start by running 3:01.26 on his 1,200-meter leg. He was followed by Zaki Blunt (53.70 for 400), junior Aaron Sahlman (1:56.11 for 800) and senior Colin Sahlman (4:04.18 for 1,600).
St. John Bosco of Bellflower won the boys’ 400 relay in a state-leading time of 40.80.
Bosco senior Rashon Luke also ran a career best of 10.32 to finish second in the 100 to junior Nyckoles Harbor (10.28) of Archbishop Carroll of Washington, D.C.
Luke’s time moved him into a four-way time for ninth on the all-time Southern Section performer list.