Brenden Gonzales
Bellflower Intramural runner Bryan takes the baton from his teammate in 4x400 meter race during the hand off on Feb. 3, 2025.
Mayfair Middle School won the annual Intramural Track and Cross Country event against Bellflower.
After two weeks of training both teams showed up at Ron Yary Stadium with their full intramural teams, Mayfair brought a team of twenty and Bellflower a team of eight.
Several traditional track events were scheduled for the day: an 800-meter race, 100-meter dash, 4×100 meter relay, 400-meter race and a 4×400 meter relay.
After taking an early lead Bellflower led over half of the Boy’s 800-meter race before Mayfair pushed through in the final 200 meters to claim first and second in the event.
For the Girls 800-meter race Mayfair also took the win after Bellflower did not field any runners.
Bellflower was able to secure the win for the Boy’s 100-meter dash, while Mayfair took the second and third.
Mayfair won the Girl’s 100-meter dash after Bellflower once again did not field an entry.
During the 4×100 meter relay, the Bellflower boy’s team claimed back-to-back wins when they broke away during the second leg of the race opening a gap the Mayfair team couldn’t close.
With only one runner on the Bellflower’s girl’s team, they were unable to field a team, which gave Mayfair the win once again.
To avoid pushing the athletes the 400-meter race was cancelled.
The event closed with the 4×400 meter relay, an event that combined boys and girls to form the relay teams.
Mayfair’s bookended the event by taking first and second and Bellflower taking third.
For the fourth straight year, Mayfair’s performance earned them the overall win for the event.
The intramural team only gets one chance to race per year, however, for those interested in continuing to compete there are options.
The seventh grade athletes can return to the intramural team for the 2026 season, while the eighth grade athletes have the opportunity to join the High School team over the summer.
Ultimately the intramural program aims to get students interested in joining the High School team they become eligible to join.
Traditionally the program has helped Bellflower find their next crop of varsity runners.
Of the seven runners on Bellflower’s Girl Varsity team, four of them had ran at least one season of intramural Cross Country.
Their Boys Varsity team currently has one former intramural runner, while their Junior Varsity team has multiple.
Melissa Flores, assistant Cross Country coach for Bellflower is a former member of the intramural program.
After joining the program in 2014 and 2015, Flores went on to run for Bellflower’s Cross Country and Track team in High School.
Flores’ four-season stint with the team ended with back-to-back league championships in 2018 and 2019.
In 2022 Flores started coaching Cross Country alongside Head Coach Adriance.
Both schools begin training for their High School teams in June, in preparation for the beginning of their season in September.
In 2024 both teams were able to qualify for CIF and hope to do so in 2025.