Diondre Batson is hot and still warming up for more.
The American River College sophomore sprinter bettered his school-record marks in the sprints with second-place showings in the 100 and 200 meter dash at the Mt. SAC Relays on Saturday in Walnut in going against elite NCAA Divsion I athletes and charging right into Olympic Trials qualifying status.
A sophomore from Laguna Creek High School in Elk Grove, Batson clocked a 10.13-second 100, breaking his old mark of 10.27 at the Stanford Invitational earlier in the month. He ran a 20.50 in the 200 on Saturday. The national community college leader in both events will compete in the Big 8 Conference Trials and Finals today and Friday at ARC. The NorCal finals are May 5-6 at College of San Mateo. The Beavers are defending team state champions under coach Rick Anderson.
Batson's sprint times are Olympic "A" qualifying marks. His 100 time would place him fifth in the national among Division I college runners and his 200 time would rate him ninth.
"He has been making some great improvement this season," Anderson told Trevor Horn, the editor-in-chief for the ARC campus paper, The Current. "He was hoping to get into the ten-teens but we were hoping for a 10.17, a 10.18 and a 10.19 - but when he went from 10.27 to 10.13 - that's just an incredible jump."
Said Batson to Horn, "It was fun but I thought I could have gone faster. It felt easy."
As for Friday's Big-8 Finals at ARC, Batson said, "Come watch. It's going to be a show."
- By Joe Davidson
jdavidson@sacbee.com
Follow on Twitter: @sb_joedavidson
Follow Trevor Horn on Twitter: @trevhorn or at www.arcurrent.com
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