Claremont High School distance runner Annie Boos broke her own school record in the 1600-meter race last week during the CIF Southern Section Division II finals at Cerritos College.

Her third place finish at 4:54:65 also guaranteed her a berth in the CIF Masters event on Friday also at Cerritos College. Also qualifying for masters was Ryan Renken, who placed second in the 3200-meter race at 9:15:37.

Both athletes will be headed to the state championships if they clock similar times during Friday’s meet, according to Coach Veronica Amarasekara.

“We did not realize at first that [Boos] had broken the record,” said Coach Amarasekara. “When we found out we were very excited.”

It is also a somewhat momentous CIF season for Coach Amarasekara because her daughter Dilini, who graduated last week, will be competing in the masters meet for Etiwanda High.

She recalled when she was due to give any day and former COURIER sports reporter Pat Yarborough wrote a story on her coaching the team.

“I was pregnant 18 years ago during the CIF prelims but had to miss the finals,” she said. “I had [Dilini] the following Tuesday,” she said.

“It’s a fun meet because everyone cheers for each other,” she said about the masters. “My daughter will be competing in the 300-meter hurdles and will cheer for the Claremont runners as they will cheer for her.”

Owen Bishop took fifth in the boys’ 1600-meter race at 4:17:65, which was not quite fast enough to go to masters.

—Steven Felschundneff

steven@claremont-courier.com