Culver City Observer -

The 2019 Mustang Relays once again allowed Culver City High track and field to showcase its sprinting and relay talents. The Centaurs brought home first place medals in the girls and boys events on a picture-perfect Spring day at Mira Costa High in Manhattan Beach last Saturday.

Culver City athletes competed with students from 27 Southern California schools in the annual South Bay classic. The day-long event featured 16 events for boys and girls in the relays, individual sprinting, distance running, hurdling, jumping as well as field events in both varsity and frosh/soph divisions.

Leading the Centaurs was senior sprinter, Kayla Barnes, who continued her fine form, winning the 100m finals with a time of 12.31 seconds. Kayla has won five of eight 100m events she's raced in this season and finished second three times. Last season she won seven of ten 100m races and seven of nine 200m races she entered.

Junior sprinter, Mekhi Evans-bey and Dexter Hollier-Larouse shined for the Centaur boys in the 400m event. Evans-bey was the lone sub-50 second runner with a time of 49.70, a person best time. Hollier-Larouse took bronze with a time of 51.39. Remarkably, Evans-bey has 12 total first place showings this season in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 4x100m relay events.

He also captured a gold medal in the boys varsity 4x400m relay, teaming up with Kevin McGuire, Khary Crump and Jayden Evans. The four City speedsters won by an impressive five seconds over the field as they registered a time of 3:23.00. And a bright sign of the future, the Culver boys frosh/soph 4x400m relay team won by four seconds in their event.

Sophomore talent, Alero Soaris, earned silver in the girls 400m race with a time of 59.19, finishing just 1/10th of a second behind winner Sydney Holden, a freshman at Crossroads School. Centaur junior Yasmeen Delgado finished third to win the bronze medal. Encouraging was Culver sprinters: Kennedy Iverson, Kamia Carter and Sasha Murphy taking first, second and fourth place respectively in the frosh/soph 400m finals.

Senior distant runner, Arman Rostamian ran a 4:30.16 in the varsity boys 1600m race to earn bronze, finishing just 1.19 seconds behind winner Nick Serrano of Saugus High. Rostamian is enjoying his finest track season at Culver High, winning his first 11 races of the year, including seven golds in the 1600m and five in the 800m event.

The Centaurs had success in the hurdles. Desmond Dickson finished third in the boys 300m hurdles with a time of 41.47. The senior hurdler has won five of his seven races this season and has medaled each time. Alexandria Williams, a junior, placed second in the varsity girls 300m hurdles. She won her previous five races in the event this season.

Sophomore Ayahna Bahati finished fourth in the girls varsity 100m hurdles and 7th in the 300m hurdles. Freshman Nicole Martinez won the frosh/soph girls 300m hurdles with a time of 51.55 while Maya Cox, Kennady Iverson and Hafsa Bariami finished 6th, 9th and 10th respectively. Cox also won silver in the frosh/soph girls 100m race.

George Laase

Culver City boys' relay teams suffered a couple of heartbreaks. They came up just short in both the varsity boys 4x100m and 4x200m relays. Each time the Centaurs placed second by less than a second behind Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks. They ran a 43.55 to Notre Dame's 42.77 in the 4x100m and crossed the line in 1:30.86 to 1:30.26 in the 4x200m.

The varsity girls placed second in the 4x100m relay, finishing in 49.30 to Redondo Union's winning time of 48.44. Culver also finished second in the varsity girls 4x400m relay to Mira Costa High, 4:04.09 to 4:02.57 for the host winners. However, the frosh/soph Culver girls returned the favor, beating Mira Costa with a time of 4:21.88 to 4:22.80 for the gold medal.