Compton youth track team breaking records en route to 2 Junior Olympics events

LONG BEACH — As the Compton Electric Speed youth relay team of Kaedyn Burroughs, Jaelen Hunter, Jayden Thomas and Kamil Pelovello started their stretching routine before practice at Chittick Field, their conversations were so loud they could be heard from the parking lot down the street.

The four youth track stars discuss anything from the latest video game releases to what they plan to do after practice.

“These dudes are really close,” Compton Electric Speed coach Joe Hunter said. “They get on the video games before practice and talk. They’ll text each other in the group chat and talk. They get to practice and they won’t shut up. Then, after practice, they get back on the game and talk some more. It just shows how close they are.”

Though the team is fairly new, its imprint on the youth track and field scene has already been made. The four athletes are all ranked in the top 20 in the USATF national rankings and have been breaking records all summer.

“It’s a surreal moment coaching these guys as they succeed,” CES speed coach Keith Burroughs said. “When you’re in it, sometimes you can’t fully get the full spectrum of it until the season is over.”

Compton Electric Speed was born out of necessity. Burroughs and Hunter had coached a group of athletes in another organization, but when travel restrictions were put in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic, most if not all of the track meets and teams shut down operations.

But that did not stop the pair of Compton-born coaches. Their goal was to get their kids running any way they could, and they found there were still meets happening in other parts of the country.

“We started seeing meets pop up in Texas and Florida back during the pandemic. When we looked up the prices to get to these places, it was like $50 round trip to get on a plane,” Hunter said. “It was a no-brainer. We just told the kids to pack a bag and let’s go.”

The team traveled anywhere the coaches could find a meet. After racking up wins, the group started to make a name for themselves around the country.

“To be able to represent Compton is a surreal feeling,” Hunter said. “When we go to other states we always get those questions like, ‘Oh I know where that is, do you know Snoop or Dre?’ We just laughed, but it really put these kids on the map being able to travel and show out at a lot of these places.”

The hard work and training were already producing consistently strong results the past few years, but 2023 has been a turning point.

At the USATF regionals in Lancaster on June 26, the 400-meter relay team of Burroughs, Hunter, Thomas and Pelovello ran 43.22 seconds to break a meet record set by a 2003 Florida team (43.25) that was anchored by five-time NCAA track champion Walter Dix, a two-time Olympic medalist.

That same weekend, the group nearly broke a 30-year-old record, this time in the 1,600 relay. The team ran a 3:24.50, which was .55 seconds off the record held by the L.A. Jets, a team that included legendary Pasadena Muir High track star Obea Moore.

“It’s really amazing. It shows us that if we keep pushing a little bit harder, we can break that record,” Pelovello said. “We can show them who we are and hold that record for as long as we can.”

According to Keith Burroughs, Moore has dropped in on a few of the team’s meets and has enjoyed watching how the team has progressed.

“When I was their same age we couldn’t fathom running that fast at 13 and 14 years old,” Keith Burroughs said of Moore’s record. “Now to see them come close to it, it is just amazing. They’ve met Obea Moore a few times and he came to the last track meet. … I’m hoping that Obea is at the next meet and if we get a chance to break the record and he’s there, I hope he gets to congratulate them.”

The records aren’t everything to the team, but the realization that they can break or challenge longstanding marks has provided added motivation as the summer progresses.

“If the records come then they come, but to have a record is a big deal because they’re breaking records that have been around for like 20 years and that’s incredible in itself,” Keith Burroughs said.

Ultimately, the goal for each of the boys is to hopefully one day compete in the Olympic Games. The records they broke this summer have opened their eyes to the reality that they can continue running at a very high level.

“After high school, I want to go to the Olympics and hopefully break more records,” Thomas said.

The relay team is preparing to compete at the USATF Junior Olympics from July 24-30 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. The four also qualified to participate in the AAU Junior Olympics beginning July 31 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.