But the final 200 meters run by both athletes Saturday at the 54th Mount San Antonio College Relays were equally impressive.

 

After Muhammad anchored Notre Dame's invitational boys' 4 x 100-meter relay team to victory over Rio Mesa and captured the invitational 100-meter dash, he rallied past Roosevelt's Elijah Mitchell to complete perhaps his most impressive career trifecta with a victory in the 200.

 

Baxter, a Simi Valley sophomore, produced one final surge in the last 200 meters of the girls' invitational distance medley relay to pull away from Beverly Hills and prevail in a school-record 11 minutes, 59.68 seconds, the No. 3 time nationally this year behind Harvard-Westlake (11:45.18) and Redondo Union (11:53.53).

 

Erika Barr clocked 3:45 on the opening 1,200 leg, Amanda Hamilton -- who earlier triple jumped 37 feet, 1/4 inch -- split 1:02 for 400 meters and Desirae Jones covered the 800 leg in 2:24 to give Baxter the baton in fourth place.

 

But after coming up short in her efforts to rally the Pioneers on the anchor of the 4 x 1,600 relay April 6 at the Arcadia Invitational, Baxter produced a 4:45 split over the final 1,600 meters -- including 1:09 on the final lap -- to deliver the dramatic victory.

 

"I thought about (Arcadia) the whole time, that's why I went after those girls right from the start,"  Baxter said.

 

"At Arcadia, it took a while before I tried to catch up to (the leaders) and by then it was too late. I felt like I could have run a lot faster, so this time I knew I wanted to go from the start. Somebody actually told me to slow down (after the first lap) because I was so excited. (With 200 meters left) I didn't think I'd be able to (beat Beverly Hills), but I knew I had to do it then if I wanted the team to win."

 

Muhammad led coming off the curve in the 200, before Mitchell pulled even with 50 meters left, but the Notre Dame junior dug deep to edge the Roosevelt standout by a 21.32 to 21.34 margin, with Glendale's Michael Davis finishing fourth (21.74), Knights teammate Eric McDaniel placing fifth (21.81) and Highland's Cyntrell Smith taking sixth (21.85). McDaniel was fourth (10.78), Davis took fifth (10.79) and Smith placed sixth (10.90) behind Muhammad in the invitational 100.

 

"Winning back-to-back-to-back is really good for us. It's only April and we're putting together some really strong performances right now," Muhammad said. "But damn, I'm tired. That (200) took a lot out of me."

 

After winning the Maurice Greene Invitational 100 title April 14 in a state-leading 10.54, Muhammad clocked a wind-legal 10.55 in the 100 and anchored the Knights' 4 x 100 relay -- including Nick Holland, Koa Farmer and McDaniel -- past Rio Mesa to prevail 41.45 to 41.62. Chaminade finished seventh (42.53), followed by an eighth-place effort in the 4 x 200 (1:30.29).

 

"We hadn't beaten Rio Mesa in I don't know how many years, so when I got the baton in good position, I said `Let's go get 'em"', Muhammad said.

 

"I feel like if I keep doing the right things, one of these days, I'm going to pop (a personal-best time in the 100)."

 

Notre Dame's 4 x 110 shuttle hurdles relay of Brandon Jett, Kyle Ause, Kyle Barrett and Aidan Elias also produced a state-leading mark of 1:02.11, giving Notre Dame three for the meet. Elias also cleared 6-4 in the high jump to place eighth.

 

"(Three) state leaders, that's a good day of track," Notre Dame coach Joe McNab said. "Especially for this early in the season, for Khalfani, this is a really good sign. He's faster at this point than he's ever been before."

 

Rio Mesa, led by UCLA signee Blake Selig, responded by producing a state-leading time of 1:26.34 in the boys' 4 x 200 relay, in addition to winning the invitational 4 x 400 in a state-leading 3:16.42. Selig added a second-place finish in the invitational long jump (23-2 1/2).

 

"We're not looking to peak right now. We don't care about that until June 2," Selig said. "But we're definitely rounding into shape. I know our baton passes are only going to get better, so we still hope our fastest times are at the state meet."

 

Oak Park's Sydney Lewis was second in the girls' invitational 100 in a wind-legal 11.90.

 

Alemany's Nia Britt placed second in the invitational girls' shot put (46-6 3/4), with Crespi's Amir Ali Patterson placing third in the boys' invitational shot put (57-10 1/2) and West Ranch's Nick Bultman finishing 10th (52-11).

 

Hart's Tim White was second in the boys' invitational triple jump (46-5 1/2) and seventh in the long jump (21-5 1/2). Crespi's Jude Olear was fifth in the triple jump (45-5 1/4).

 

Rio Mesa's Raegan Nizdil was second in the high jump (5-6), with Quartz Hill's Allison Jackson third (5-4). Notre Dame's Erica Peyton was fifth in the invitational discus throw with an effort of 133 feet.

 

Harvard-Westlake's Garrett Robinson was third (49.11) in the boys' invitational 400.

 

Quartz Hill's Malik Hayes (1:53.06), Hart's Austin O'Neil (1:54.24) and Thousand Oaks' Tommy Lopez (1:54.63) were third, fourth and fifth in the invitational 800, with Lopez setting a new school record. Golden Valley's Chelsey Totten (2:14.50) and West Ranch's Ashley Welker (2:15.45) took fifth and seventh in the girls' 800.

 

Thousand Oaks' Karsen Sper placed sixth in the girls' 100 hurdles (14.53). Simi Valley's Madisen Richards was sixth in the long jump (18-6 1/2), followed by Sierra Canyon's Zoe Goss in seventh (18-3).

 

Harvard-Westlake's girls' 4 x 400, featuring Cami Chapus and Amy Weissenbach, placed fifth in 3:53.14 and the Wolverines boys' distance medley relay was 12th (10:36.55). Oaks Christian (48.43) and Simi Valley (48.79) placed fifth and sixth in the girls' invitational 4 x 100 relay.

 

Moorpark's Mike Montgomery cleared 15 feet in the pole vault to place fourth, with Harvard-Westlake's Ben Gaylord (14-6) taking sixth.