The562’s coverage of Millikan athletics in the 2023-24 school year is sponsored by Curtis Boyer.
The562’s cross country and track & field coverage is sponsored by an anonymous donation, in appreciation of Coach Ron Allice.
A special career featured a historic finish for Millikan’s Jason Parra, who must be considered one of the best distance runners in Long Beach history. His senior season didn’t quite live up to his lofty standards early on, but he finished in a flurry to win individual titles at the CIF-SS and CIF State Championships.
“I was pretty happy, I’ll be honest,” said Parra, on how it felt to win a State title. “I was kind of thinking, ‘Finally.’ It’s eluded me for two years now. I’ve had a couple of cracks at it and I haven’t been able to get it. But now, I finally have one under my belt so it feels pretty good.”
Parra won every Moore League meet comfortably, setting course records at El Dorado and Heartwell and making his college commitment to Notre Dame during the season. His win at league finals helped the Rams win their first league championship in boys’ cross country in more than 30 years, but he was far from finished.
Running on the flatter “rain course” at Mt. SAC for the CIF-SS championships, Parra ran a time of 13:57, the fastest ever for a Division 1 champ. He was one of just two runners to go sub-14 on the day, and he became just the third runner from Long Beach to win an individual CIF title in cross country.
The nest week in Fresno, Parra became just the second Long Beach runner to win gold at the state meet, running a time of 14:56.8. He’s the first Long Beach runner to go sub-15 at the State meer, and he was able to finish strong to hold off the runner-up by two seconds at the finish.
Parra added one more accomplishment to his resume with an appearance at the Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Oregon, becoming just the second runner to represent Long Beach at the prestigious event. He ran a time of 15:25.9 to finish eighth against the top runners from across the country, finishing with the fastest time of any runner from California.
He’ll look to add even more hardware during the 2024 track season as he seeks a third consecutive CIF-SS title in the boys’ 3200.
