Culver City Observer -

Youth and speed are served. Culver City High track and field continued its fine early season form in the 2018 Mustang Relays at Mira Costa High in Manhattan Beach on Saturday, March 17. The Centaur girls and boys respective frosh/soph and varsity squads took home five first place medals including a meet record for one young student athlete.

The Culver tracksters were among 20 high school teams from nine different leagues that competed in 64 race finals for the 16 track and field events. The popular Mustang Relays is an early season gauge that draws some of the best local talent. This year was no exception as there were plenty of PR’s (personal records) across the board.

The Culver High frosh/soph girls once again excelled for the Centaurs in the sprint events. Freshman Ayahna Bahati set the girls frosh/soph 100m hurdles meet record with a winning time of 15.96 seconds. Impressively, she has placed first in four of the five races she has competed in the event this season.

Sophomore Anaiya Mitchell won the girls frosh/soph 400 Meters with a nice time of 59.74. Yasmeen Delgado finished in second with 1:02.48 and Alexandria Williams finished sixth in 1:05.64. The Centaur frosh/soph girls also won the 4x200m relay with a time of 1:50.16. They also won the girls frosh/soph 4x400m relay by over nine seconds with a time of 4:21.78.

Culver won first place in the boys varsity 4x200m relay, edging out West Torrance 1:32.84 to 1:33.05. Individually, Desmond Dickson ran 42.94 to take home bronze in the boys varsity 300m hurdles. Justin Jarmon, a junior in the field events, finished 9th in the boys varsity high jump and 20th in the boys varsity long jump.

The Centaurs also shined in the boys varsity 4x400m relay, finishing in second place just steps behind Loyola, 3:26.65 to 3:28.99. The boys varsity team finished in seventh place in both the 4x800m relay and the boys varsity distance medley relay (1200-400-800-1600m) races.

In the boys varsity 100m event, Jayden Evans finished 5th and Andrew Brown 6th. Richard Reliford finished 5th, Dominick Tatum 6th and Desmond Dickson 10th in the boys varsity 400 meter race. Arman Rostamian, Brandon Cummings and Max Jordan finished 10th, 21st and 30th respectively in the boys varsity 1600 meters event.

The Culver senior girls had nice finishes on the track. In the girls varsity 100m hurdles Jasmine Marrero placed second with 16.04, Guess Scott third in 16.06a PR and Angel Morris ran 16.52 to place fifth.

Freshman Alero Soaris took bronze in the girls varsity 400m event with a time of 1:01. Ari Belcher, also a freshman, finished 7th at 1:03.43 and Kayla Barnes 9th in 1:05.43. In the girls varsity 300m hurdles Guess Scott placed third with a time of 49.86 and Jasmine Marrero fourth with 50.40.

In the jumping events Angel Morris placed fourth in the girls varsity high jump with a leap of 4’ 08”. Kalyn Hooks leaped 15’ 02.5” to finish ninth in the girls varsity long jump.

The Culver varsity girls medaled in two relay races. They took second place in the girls varsity 4x400m relay in 4:12.33 and third place in the girls varsity 4x200m relay event in 1:50.68. They also placed fourth in the girls varsity 4x100m relay and fifth in the girls varsity distance medley relay.

Ayahna Bahati medaled again in the hurdles taking third place in the girls frosh/soph 300m hurdles. Alexandria Williams and Shana Paxon finished just behind in fourth and fifth respectively. In the girls frosh/soph 100 meters Ariana Tyson-Smith placed fifth and Annisa McGregor eighth. Shana Paxon finished fourth in the girls frosh/soph 100m hurdles.

The Centaurs finished second in the girls frosh/soph 4x100m relay race, a mere .05 seconds behind Redondo Union who won in 52.11 to 52.16. Culver finished fifth in the girls frosh/soph 4x800m relay event.

In the girls jumping events Annisa McGregor finished fourth in the frosh/soph high Jump event and Savannah Smith finished fifth in the girls frosh/soph long jump. Smith also finished fourth in the girls frosh/soph triple jump while Jazmin White placed eighth.

The Centaur frosh/soph boys also medaled. Sophomore Collin Dixon took bronze in the boys frosh/soph 400 meters with a time of 54.91. In the boys frosh/soph 1600 meter event Kieren Walker took third with a time of 4:51.86. Sam Schuette placed ninth in 5:03.38.

Culver City placed third in the boys frosh/soph 4x400m relay event in 3:44.23. They placed fourth in the boys frosh/soph 4x200 relay and seventh in the boys frosh/soph distance medley relay.

The respective leagues and the schools that partipated:

Los Angeles City – Coast: Palisades Charter and View Park Prep. South Bay (SBAA): Beverly Hills, Culver City, El Segundo, Mira Costa, Palos Verdes, Peninsula, Redondo Union, South Torrance, Torrance and West Torrance.

Camino Del Ray (CDRA): Bishop Montgomery. Coastal: Cal. Acad. Math/Science, Wiseburn - Da Vinci. Mission/Sunshine: Loyola. Pacific: Crescenta Valley. Pacific Coast: Beckman. Suburban: Mayfair. Valle Vista: Rowland.