Former Region 15 Stars Continue to Shine In the Track Galaxy

Here is just an  another example of the fine talent that dominates the Southern California Area 

   Watch Out Here They Come….

  
photos by Doug Speck and Kirby Lee - Image of Sport
Akawkaw Ndipagbor and Elias Gedyon

 The Golden State has on the frosh scene two of the nation’s best middle-schoolers from last year in Akawkaw Ndipagbor (pronounced ah-coco in-dee-pag (bag with a p)-bore), with the Southern Californian who has shown up as a student at Long Beach Poly a super age-group career, topped last summer by bests up through the 400 of 11.98 100m, 24.21 200m, and 53.73 400m. She was the USATF Youth Nationals age 13-14 100 meter champ, and the USATF JO age 13-14 200 and 400 champ last summer at Mt. SAC. She is obviously in a program that has had a ton of great athletes at Poly, with a healthy four year career for the Jackrabbits probably leading to some amazing results.  Appearing far from fragile, Akawkaw was third in the recent Fresno Run for the Dream indoor at 55 meters, racing 7.24 for third behind Ashton Purvis in an event that is quite dependent on a quick start.

 This super frosh obviously bears watching!

 (Track Mom’s Favorite)

At Loyola HS this fall the top Middle School middle distance runner of the last couple of years, Elias Gedyon, joined a fine cross-country squad that went on to a State Division II title and finished ninth in the entire nation as a club at the Nike Team Nationals. Impressively, one of the squad’s steady forces during the championship campaign was ninth grader Gedyon, with the tall youngster with the loping stride able to generate strong momentum during his end of season races that typically had him move way up through the pack to a fine position by the finish. With sub-50 second speed for 400 meters and good conditioning a willing athlete can move up to the 800 and 1500/1600 meter distance with great success, but it takes a special ‘mental’ strength to battle with the nation’s best over the 5000 meter distance over hill and dale, as Gedyon did this Fall in his first prep season.

 At the State Meet Division II in November Gedyon was seventh place overall at 15:45, a frosh clocking that places him seventh on a tough all-time grade list there in select company, with two ahead of him eventual National prep Champs in that sport (Bryan Dameworth and Louie Quintana), and one an eventual NCAA Cross Country Champ (Josh Rohatinsky from Utah). At the Nike Team Nationals he was one of only five frosh contestants in the Championhip team race, with a thirty-fifth place finish as the top ninth grade placer for his Club’s ninth place finishing group. With his basic speed we would imagine that his focus would be on the 800 and 1600 during the spring track and field season, with the young athlete probably a force on the annually strong Loyola 4×400 relay group.

He will be another fun one to watch this coming season!

Thanks to Dye Stat for pics and updates!!

TrackMom

Dr.Lorraine

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