With track season nearly entering the home stretch, some of the state’s best athletes were on display as Todd Beamer’s girls and boys teams downed the Decatur girls and boys in a league meet on April 14.

The Beamer boys won 92-44, while the girls won 112-29.

Decatur’s Kemuel Santana put together an impressive performance as he picked up two individual wins and finished off a victory for the Gators in the 4×400 meter relay. He had to outrun Beamer’s talented Maliks: Malik Messiah and Malik Malutama. Even in the 200, the top-placing Titan was Malik Ford, who finished fourth.

Santana set a personal record in the 100, running at 10.96 seconds. Which was good enough to tie him with Bothell’s Kevin Liu for the second-fastest time in 4A. He is now alone in second after running a 10.92 against Federal Way on Wednesday. He trails only Federal Way’s Alex Taylor, who has run a time of 10.86 according to athletic.net.

Messiah ran his best time of the season in the 100 at 11.39 as he tried to keep pace with Santana.

The race of the day was the boys 4×400 relay.

Santana and Malutama were both running the anchor leg of the race. When they took the batons they were neck-and-neck. As they turned down the final stretch, it was Santana who was able to pull away for the Decatur victory with a time of 3:33.33 to Beamer’s 3:34.13.

Messiah and Malutama did not go home without victories of their own. Messiah won both the 110 hurdles and the 300 hurdles, while Malutama won the 400 and the long jump events.

Messiah’s time of 15.04 in the 110 hurdles places him at ninth in the state currently. On Saturday at the Tacoma Invite, he jumped into sixth in the state for 300 hurdles with a time of time of 40.01.

Malutama also turned in one of the state’s best times in the 400 on Saturday before beating that time on Wednesday against Mount Rainier. He now sits at fourth with a time of 49.60.

One of the state’s best hurdlers, Claire Hansen, coasted her way to victories in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles. On March 17, the Beamer junior posted a time of 15.13 in the 100 hurdles, placing her sixth in 4A currently.

She also took first in the high jump with a height of 4-10.

Decatur’s standout senior thrower, Parris Watson, did not compete at the meet. In her abscence, it was fellow Gator Gabrielle Boyd who dominated the competition. Boyd won the shot put, discus and javelin events with distances of 34-10, 98-7 and 89.

On Saturday, Boyd climbed into the top 10 in 4A for shot put at the Nike Eason Invitational in Snohomish with a persona-record throw of 38-4. She is in the top 25 for discus.

Beamer’s AJ Chopra and Decatur’s Josiah Williams found themselves battling in two of the long distance runs, but it was Chopra who came out victorious both times.

The 1600 could also lay claim to being the race of the day with the two runners finishing within 0.06 seconds of each other. In the end, Chopra had just enough burst to hold off Williams for the win with a time of 4:53.97.

Chropra won the 3200 with a time of 11:06.02 as he pulled away from the competition in the final 100 meters. Williams finished with a time of 4:54.03.

Beamer’s Molly Ivey, Akiya Bell and Alyssa Mendoza were all winners of multiple events.

Ivey took first in the 800 and 3200 with times of 2:39.02 and 13:10.

Bell won the 100 and 200 with times of 12.89 and 27.57.

Mendoza won the pole vault and long jump events with a height of 8-6 and a distance of 14-7.

Decatur’s boys (1-2-0) and girls (0-3-0) fell to Federal Way’s boys (2-0-0) and girls (2-0-0) 100.5-43.5 and 119-27 on Wednesday after the Mirror’s publishing deadline.

The following week, on April 29, Decatur will host a freshman-sophomore invitational. On April 30, the varsity girls will head to the 40th Annual Lake Washington Girls Invite and the boys will head to the Shoreline Invitational.

Beamer’s boys (2-0-0) and girls (2-0-0) defeated Mount Rainier’s boys (0-3-0) and girls (1-2-0) 90-37 and 67.5-64.5 on Wednesday. They head to the Bellevue Track and Field Invitational on Saturday before facing Thomas Jefferson on April 28.

On May 4, varsity teams for Decatur, Federal Way, Jefferson and Beamer will be at Federal Way Memorial Stadium for the All-City Meet. The junior varsity runners will meet on the following day.