On this visit accompanying a group of young New Zealand athletes, I attended four meetings and each shared this depth of competition and effective communication of results.
The major meeting was the Mt Sac Relays at Mount Antonio College in Los Angeles.
This, like the aforementioned Penn Relays is one of the major college (university) and international meetings in the US.
The fields were large but, at the same time, there was an even larger meeting 6 miles down the road at Asuza Pacific University - the Bryan Clay Invitational.
The invitational is for both high school and college athletes, many of whom had not made the grade for the relays, and also close by there was yet another high school meeting at which a group from St Peters School Cambridge found excellent competition.
The small group of young New Zealand athletes all competed but I did manage to make two short visits to Mt Sac.
In the first I watched Geordie Beamish compete in the second of seven graded 1500m races.
Beamish, who has struggled with injury and an associated lack of confidence, was disappointed he had been promoted from the third heat with the condensing of the fields.
He ran without his customary confidence and finished mid-field, disappointed with his performance.
However, his 3.53s was in fact his third best over the distance and considering the troubled build-up post-New Zealand Championships in early March and a resulting lack of confidence, he should be pleased with his time.
On my second visit, I arrived just in time to watch Camille Buscomb win the women's 5000m with a substantial personal best with excellent tactical judgement.
This is a major step for this promising New Zealand athlete and follows in the footsteps of a previous Mt Sac winner, Wanganui's Lucy van Dalen.
In the following race, Hugo Beamish continued his return to the sport and although finishing mid-field in the 5000m ran under 14 minutes (20 seconds faster than at the NZ Championships).
This is a major step in his comeback to the sport.
Meanwhile, at the Bryan Clay meeting I was blown away by the size of the entries.
There were no less than 11 heats of 1500m each with over 20 athletes starting and the total entry exceeded 2400.
Like many of such meetings, there was an excitement and vibrancy about the event.
Athletes filled the in-field, along with coaches, and trackside there was vociferous support from coaches and athletes alike. Although there was no electric scoreboard, times were displayed with the name and within a minute of the race ending, full results were announced.
Max Attwell competed at this meeting and rectified his problems in long jump from the week before with a 6.39m effort, which had he achieved at the Arcadia Decathlon would have helped him achieve a personal best for the 10-event competition.
He was a little disappointed with his 400m slipping just below the 50 second mark, while his combined event team-mate, Danica Davies (Otago) added to a list of personal bests with a new high-jump mark.
The Arcadia meeting mentioned last week, not only had a prestigious two-day decathlon/heptathlon competition for high school athletes, but on the following day there was a full early-morning to late-at-night track meeting, which again attracted large fields and races and competition graded by ability.
Athletes who did not make the Arcadia entry standard competed on the same day at the Tiger Invitational High School meeting at Pasadena which had the same huge fields and slick organisation.
The tour had started in San Francisco where, again, there was a choice of meetings and team members competed at both.
The same format applied and events were in graded divisions by ability.
I was interested to note many of our leading local junior athletes would have finished, at worst, mid-field in many of the divisions and would have been top-three finishers in the last of up to 10 divisions.
The events provided competition for all abilities and a worthwhile experience for the New Zealand athletes, from the international-level Camille Buscombs to the less-experienced school-aged athletes.
I can certainly recommend such meetings to aspiring athletes.
It is back down to earth now, away from the sun and into the Wanganui cross country season, starting with Anzac Relays at Lake Wiritoa tomorrow.
