Bonita’s Dillon Beckum and others ready to tackle the CIF-State track and field championships in Clovis Posted on June 5, 2015 by Fred Robledo CIF-STATE FINALS PREVIEW: There are plenty of hotshot distance runners out there. Until two weeks ago, Dillon Beckum had to prove he was one of them. The Bonita High School sophomore hung with one of the best milers in the nation, Brea-Olinda senior Austin Tamagno, who won the CIF-Southern Section and CIF State cross country titles, in the CIF-SS Division 3 Finals. He lost to Tamagno by 0.02 seconds. Beckum improved his 1,600-meter time by about eight seconds in that race to propel him into the 97th CIF State Track and Field Championships, which begins today at Clovis’ Buchanan High. He ran a 4:09.21 in the Division 3 finals, the seventh-fastest time in the state this season.Beckum stayed with Tamagno and then used a strong kick at the finish to nearly beat him. “My goal every race is that I know the first 400 is going to be easy,” he said. “Then it’s only really the middle two laps. If I hit those two laps, I’ll be there for the fourth lap. I find something no matter how dead I am. I know it.”
