WATCH: Fight breaks out after high school 4x400m relay

On a night when a majority of track fans were anticipating a historic run by the U.S. high school runners from Newbury Park in the two-mile, the men’s 4x400m relay stole the spotlight. At the Arcadia Invitational in Arcadia, Calif., on Saturday evening, a fight broke out at the finish line between teams from Long Beach Wilson and Central Fresno high schools. 

The Long Beach Wilson team led by 50 metres going into the anchor leg when Central Fresno runner Jeremiah Walker split 23 seconds over the opening 200m of his anchor leg to close the gap. As Walker passed the LB Wilson runner, Diego Alveradoof, with 100m to go, Alveradoof tripped and fell, which resulted in LB Wilson finishing third. At the finish, Averadoof confronted Walker, which led to a brawl breaking out between the two teams. 

(The fall takes place at 3:10 in the YouTube video, below.) 

According to witnesses, there was no blatant on as Walker made his pass on the outside. After Alveradoof finished, he immediately went up to Walker to call him out, initiating the dispute. 

It took race officials several minutes to defuse the situation. Both teams were later disqualified for their actions. This is the second fight to break out at a U.S. high school meet in two weeks. 

Earlier in the evening at Arcadia, Newbury Park’s Colin Sahlman (8:37.98) and Lex Young (8:38.72) produced the sixth and seventh fastest times ever in U.S. high school history for the two-mile (3,200m).