Brock Burns Up The Clock: State-Leading 10.42!

By Rich Gonzalez

PrepCalTrack.com Editor

(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) — The real "heat" isn't scheduled to play out until Thursday's Mission League Finals at Occidental College, but Chaminade High's T. J. Brock wasn't about to wait around and do anything at a pedestrian pace until then.

Brock, who false started in the 100-meter dash at last year's Mission League Prelims, avoided experiencing deja vu this time around, impressively winning his heat of the "century dash" in a state-leading time at Monday's league prelims meet at Oxy.

Brock, who unleashed one the fastest all-conditions times in United States history last month (10.20, wind aided), eased through the finish here in 10.42 seconds, clipping 0.08 off the year's previous wind-legal, state-leading time of 10.50 (posted over the weekend by Lincoln of Stockton's John McDonald). Alemany's Dominic Davis, another strong contender for the 100-meter title at next month's CIF-State Championships, had the best view of Brock's speed as he finished second in 10.58 — just 0.05 off his own lifetime wind-legal best. The dashers had a gentle 0.3 meters-per-second breeze at their backs.

Davis' younger brother Diab (10.59) and Notre Dame's Trevor Reid (10.85) also were heat winners, with 6 of the 8 qualifiers to Thursday's final all dipping under 11 seconds in their qualifier race. At the 2013 Mission League Finals, all eight finalists broke 11 seconds as the entire field advanced to the CIF-SS Preliminaries atfer satisfying either the automatic entry or at-large entry criteria. That scenario could repeat itself this Thursday.

Brock also won his prelims heat in the 200, running a lifetime-best 21.25 into a slight headwind (-0.7 mps), registering as the #2 time in the state this year. In the 400, Chaminade's Greg Campbell, ranked #2 in the state in the event, topped the qualifiers at 49.02 while St. Francis' Ross Niederhaus, another of the state's best, was the second-fastest qualifier.

A limited number of varsity girls events were contested at the prelims (most were seeded as straight finals into Thursday), with Harvard-Westlake dasher Shea Copeland leading the action in posting the fastest qualifying times in both the 100 (12.18) and the 200 (24.81).

The top event at Thursday's finals should be the boys 400-meter relay, where 4 of the state's 5 fastest teams will face off. Additionally, solid vaulters from Loyola and a trio of national-class talents in Harvard-Westlake jumpers Courtney Corrin and Alexandria Florent and Loyola distance runner Robert Brandt will be featured.

Field events are set to start Thursday at 2 p.m., followed by track events getting underway at 3 p.m.

(Note: The finals in the throws events, showcasing a powerful Notre Dame contingent, will take place on Wednesday at Notre Dame HS.)





Photos from prelims are posted at bottom of this page!

[epirms resultsfile="/home/wp_wwtddx/submission_uploads/9098_20150504224808_hytek_html"]