RUSD's Martin Luther King High School recently made Riverside history with the victory of their Unified Sports Track Team, claiming the CIF Southern Division Championship.
Unified Sports is a program of inclusion where Special Needs students and General Education students compete in teams of two in each event and the average of their efforts determine where they place in the competition. It is a program supported by the Special Olympics through the CIF.
"This is a great accomplishment for our team and the entire program," said Coach Mat Vasel. "It's an honor to be the first school to win the Southern Division CIF Championship."
It took about 18 hours after the event was over but after emails; texts and a refiguring of the team scores, the ML King Unified Sports Track team came away with the first-ever Unified CIF Southern Division Championship this past Friday at Trabuco Hills High School. It is the 11th CIF title in the school’s history, all sports combined.
It is the first-ever such title awarded in the CIF’s commitment to the Unified Sports movement, also known as Unified Championship Schools (UCS). Unified Sports is a program of inclusion where Special Needs students and General Education students compete in teams of two in each event and the average of their efforts determine where they place in the competition. It is a program supported by the Special Olympics through the CIF.
Due to confusion over how the event was to be scored, King initially was deemed the second-place finisher in the meet. However, upon further investigation and discussion, King came away the winner with 111 points, outdistancing Trabuco Hills at 74 points and Los Alamitos with 73.
The UCS movement is in its fourth year and this season, the CIF (SS) was divided into a UCS Southern and a UCS Northern Division. The top qualifiers between the two divisions move onto the Master’s Meet next week for a shot at making the State Championships in Clovis on May 28. Though 7 events were completed on Friday, only the 100, the Shot Put and the 4 X 100 Relay are the events where the opportunity to go to Clovis is available. At the Masters Meet next Saturday, only the winning team of two athletes–or on the relays- 4 athletes will move on to State.
Using the combined scores of the boys and girls competitions to determine the team places, the Boys “A” 4 x 100 Relay of Christian DeLoye, David Green, Landon Laramie and Maxwell Robinson got things off to a fast start with a very impressive second place time of 46.63. They were behind the team from Oak Hills which clocked 45.95. In the 400, the team of Green and Damien Zemanek finished second to fellow Wolves Jack Slavin and DeLoye who clocked a team average time of 53.93. Ruth DeLoye and Lauren Langner picked up points in the 100 and 200 for their efforts and the Boys 4 X 400 (Slavin, Zemanek, Green and DeLoye) turned in a very fine 3:39.70 for first place. In the Long Jump, Green and teammate David Adams soared to an 18-8 average for first place and Deloye and Robinson finished second. For Christian and David, it was the 4th medal of the meet—quite a haul! In the shot put, Isaiah Butler and Aiden Sos won the event at an average of 30″-11.
Qualifiers for the Master’s Meet this coming Saturday at Moorpark High School include both the “A” 4 x 100 and the “B” 4 X 100 of Butler, Anthony Martin, Justin Allen and Seth Flores. Ruth Deloye and Lauren Langner in the 100 and Butler and Sos in the Shot Put.
For Aiden Sos, this is a very special run as he was among the FIRST of our UCS athletes to compete back in 2019 and now in his senior year, he has the opportunity to go to state. “As he has grown,” said Coach Mat Vasel, “so has our UCS program.”
“I am super proud of our Unified athletes and partners, ” said Sondra Lough, Special Ed. teacher and ML King UCS Director. “We are really looking forward to what we can accomplish at Moorpark High next week.” Coach Vasel said, ” This is a great accomplishment not just for the UCS part of our team but for the entire program. It’s a tribute to what EVERY kid can contribute to our success. It’s an honor to be the first school to win the Southern Division CIF Championship” and then he smiled, “even if it took a few hours to really decide it.”