Culver City Observer -

On your marks... the Ocean League Track & Field Prelims featured student athletes from six high schools at Culver City High on Monday afternoon. Lawndale, El Segundo, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Hawthorne and host Culver City competed until dusk to qualify for this Thursday's League Finals, also at Jerry Chabola Stadium starting at 4:00 p.m.

To facilitate scheduling, both girls and boys varsity and frosh/soph teams competed in 14 League Final events on Monday. Teams completed the 3200m frosh/soph, varsity and frosh/soph discus, varsity and frosh/soph pole vault as well as the varsity and frosh/soph long jump Final events.

Sophomore Adrian Simon took first place for Culver City in the boys frosh/soph discus event. Simon tossed the 1.6 kg disc 92 feet 6.5 inches, winning by over three feet. Centaur Michael Balkman finished eighth with a throw of 64 feet 6.75 inches. Imani Lowe earned bronze in the girls varsity discus with a throw of 82 feet 2 inches. Nangi Cooper finished eighth with a 62 feet 3.5 inch toss.

Jazmin White won the girls frosh/soph long jump Final with a leap of 15 feel 9.5 inches. Centaurs Nicole Martinez, Abigail Cregor, Grace Weil and Ameerah Brown finished second through fifth place respectively, giving the Culver City girls a 1-5 sweep. Savannah Smith finished second in the girls varsity long jump, reaching 16 feet 6.5 inches. Leah Clark finished sixth, Cmone Garrett in seventh and Skye Apao in 13th place.

Centaurs' Jamal Glaspie took home silver in the varsity boys long jump. Glaspie jumped a person best of 21 feet 9 inches. Justin Jarmon leaped 19 feet 7 inches for eighth place. Amari Pait took bronze in the boys frosh/soph long jump, leaping 17 feet 2.5 inches. Kieren Walker finished fourth in the boys 3200m race with a season best time, 11:05:18.

Lucas Fite finished eighth in 13:05.92. Bailey Cooper finished sixth in the girls pole vault, clearing 7.00 feet. David-Anthony Narajo finished eighth in the boys varsity discus with a throw of 102 feet 8.5 inches. Richard Farias finished 11th with a toss of 87 feet 9.5 inches. Gabriela Fite finished eighth in the girls frosh/soph 3200m event in 18:37.67

The varsity girls qualified five runners in the 100m event for Thursday's Finals. Six made the girls 200m event Final. The varsity girls also qualified two in the 800m race. The frosh soph girls qualified one in the 100m event, two in the 200m, two in the 400m, four in the 800m and three in the 1600m middle distance race.

The varsity boys qualified four sprinters for Thursday's Final 100m event, two in the 200m, two in the 400m, three in the 110m hurdles and four in the 1600m event. The soph/frosh boys quailed four in the 100m Finals, three in the 200m, four in the 400m, four in the 800m and two in the 1600m event.

Excelling in the Prelims, Kayla Barnes finished first in both girls varsity 100m and 200m races. Barnes achieved personal best times in both events: 12.17 in the 100m and 25.39 in the 200m. She has won 8 of 12 sprints in the 100 meters this season and 5 of 8 in the 200m races entered.

Kennedy Iverson also completed a double while qualifying in the girls frosh/soph 200m and 400m events, winning the 200m in 27.35 and posting 1:02.12 in the 400m event. Alexandra Williams won the girls varsity 300m hurdles with a time of 49.36.

Khary Crump qualified for the boys varsity 100m with a winning time of 11.14, a personal best. Jamal Glaspie (11.45), Jayden Evans (11.48) and Justin Jarmon (11.66) also qualified in the 100m. Ayinde Bankole qualified and won the boys frosh/soph 100m in 11.64. Elijah Harris (11.87), Miles Concepcion and Emari Pait also qualified for Thursday's Final.

Mekhi Evans-bey won and qualified for the boys varsity 200 event in 22.58. Crump finished fifth with a time of 23.58 to qualify. Bankole also won the boys frosh/soph 200m in 24.11 to complete the sprint sweep while qualifying. Concepcion finished second in 24.33 and Amari Levels (24.50) placed fourth to qualify.

Shamar Carter qualified and won the 300m hurdles with a time of 40.91. He also finished second in the 110m hurdles event. Desmond Dickson also (41.60) qualified for the 300 hurdles as well as in the 100m hurdles Finals (16.69).

Evans-bey qualified for the boys varsity 400m event in 50.32. Dialo Drati also qualified in 51.94. Amari Levels finished second in the boys frosh/soph 400m in 54.86. Eric Smith (55.50), William Schultz and Zion Reliford finished right behind to qualify. Arman Rostamian (2:01.03) finished second to qualify for the boys varsity 800m event as did Drati in 2:01.40.

Eric Smith (2:12.91), Garrett LaPalm (2:14.38), Kieren Walker (2:15.25) and Daniel Quintero qualified for the boys frosh/soph 800m race. Rostamian (4:39.16) also finished second in the boys varsity 1600m event with Brandon Cummings (4:40.76), Sam Schuett (4:49.25) and Aidan Kim (4:49.55) qualifying. Walker qualified for the boys frosh/soph 1600m event in 5:00.62 as well as Garrett LaPalm in 5:05.93.

Fred Altieri

Shamar Carter is the Centaurs Double Threat Hurdler.

Beneen Fune qualifed for the girls varsity 800m race in 2.26.57 as did Eboni Harrison (2:37.45). Angel Gilbert finished second to qualify for the girls frosh/soph 800m in (2:34.19). Katherine Holland (2:36.09), Sierra Nimnual (2:37.52) and Ariel Gilbert (2:40.53) qualified, too. Nimnual (6:03.47), Angel Gilbert (6:05.95) and Ariel Gilbert (6:23.73) also qualified in the girls frosh/soph 1600m event.

Thursdays Ocean League Finals will feature all of the sprint and hurdles finals, team relay finals, most of the middle distance finals, high jump, triple jump and shot put events for girls and boys varsity and frosh/soph events. The Culver City girls and boys varsity teams and girls frosh/soph are defending Ocean League Champs in their respective competitions.