Saturday’s CIF Southern Section track & field championships proved once again that Long Beach is among the nation’s best at turning out top-tier athletes. Long Beach Poly, Wilson, and St. Anthony all produced individual CIF champions while the Jackrabbits finished second in the Division 1 girls’ team standings.
Fourteen entries from six schools will compete in next Saturday’s CIF-SS Masters Meet.
The track meet started auspiciously, as the Long Beach Poly girls’ 4×100 relay team of Quwshaya Peters, Jaelyn Predium, Kenya Payne, and Ariyonna Augustine won CIF gold with a time of 47.10.
The Jackrabbits got a slow start and Augustine was in fourth when she took the baton for the anchor leg, but rocketed out to win comfortably over second-place Arcadia (47.46). Augustine added to her trophy case by going on to defend her CIF championships in the 100 and 200, and running on Poly’s 4×400 girls team which finished fourth. Augustine took home three gold medals on the day and will run in four events at Masters next week.
“It’s a lot of running but everything is for the team,” she said. “We want to win a state championship and that means we all have to do everything we can.”
The Poly boys quartet of Kejuan Markham, Anthony Johnson, Kenyon Reed, and Ashun Brown ran a season-best time of 41.62 to take second place, finishing behind Great Oak (41.41).
Wilson’s Rachel Glenn had a full day with three events, competing in the high jump, the 400 and the 4×400. Glenn won the CIF title in the high jump with relative ease, clearing 5-7 with no fouls—Glenn is the state leader in the event this year.
“It’s so exciting, there are so many people who’d love to be here and to win is amazing,” she said.
Glenn finished sixth in the 400 and just missed qualifying for Masters, admitting that she was gassed.
The Wilson boys’ 4×400 ran its second-best time ever but finished second to a red-hot Aliso Niguel team; the Bruins still figure to contend for a state championship in Fresno in two weeks.
St. Anthony had a great performance from its girls’ team in the Division 4 competition, led by freshman Asjah Atkinson. Atkinson anchored a fifth-place finish for the Saints’ 4×100 team (49.50) and finished fifth in the long jump with a leap of 17-3.5. She impressed in the hurdles races, winning a CIF title in the 100 with a time of 14.34 and then backing it up with a CIF title in the 300 hurdles. She became the Saints’ first individual champion in 20 years.
Atkinson admitted it was a long day.
“I’m just trying to recover and rest as much as possible in between,” she said.
Jordan’s A’Lena Chaney was one of the best surprises of the day, finishing third in the long jump with a best leap of 18-2.25. Chaney was the ninth and final qualifier out of prelims but made her last jump her best, edging fourth-place by a quarter inch with her final jump.
Chaney qualified ninth for Masters, becoming the first Jordan athlete to do so since former Panthers and ASU sprinter LaTroya Franklin.
2018 CIF-SS Track & Field Championships
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FULL RESULTS—bolded entries qualified for Masters.
Girls’ 4×100
Division 1
1: Long Beach Poly 47.10
Division 4
5: St. Anthony (Bell, Atkinson, Sharp, London) 49.50
Boys’ 4×100
2: Long Beach Poly (Reed, Markham, Anthony Johnson, Ashun Brown), 41.62
Boys’ 1600
5: Jack Raymond, Long Beach Poly, 4:17
Girls’ 100 H
1: Asjah Atkinson, St. Anthony, 14.34
Boys’ 110 H
7: Ereq Pye, Long Beach Poly, 15.39
Girls’ 400
6: Rachel Glenn, Wilson, 56.74
7: Alexus Anderson, Lakewood, 57.16
Boys’ 400
8: Steven Camacho, Wilson, 49.53
9: Andrew Richards, Wilson, 49.72
Girls’ 100
1: Ariyonna Augustine, Long Beach Poly, 11.75
3: Chudney McGeehee, Millikan, 12.19
5: Jaelyn Predium, Long Beach Poly, 12.36
Boys’ 100
2: Kejuan Markham, Long Beach Poly, 10.71
7: Kenyon Reed, Long Beach Poly, 10.94
Girls’ 300 Hurdles
Division 1
4: Kenya Payne, Long Beach Poly, 42.80
Division 4
1: Asjah Atkinson, St. Anthony, 44.44
Boys’ 300 Hurdles
3: Riley Williams, Millikan, 38.00
Girls’ 200
1: Ariyonna Augustine, Long Beach Poly, 23.91
6: Alexus Anderson, Lakewood, 24.64
Boys’ 200
4: Kenyon Reed, Long Beach Poly, 22.13
Girls’ 4×400
4: Long Beach Poly (Peters, Payne, Augustine, Haddad), 3:49.66
7: Long Beach Wilson (Ferguson, Nettles, Glenn, Griffith), 3:53.58
Boys’ 4×400
2: Long Beach Wilson (Camacho, Richards, Weimer, Bennett), 3:15.68
9: Long Beach Poly (Hall, Steward, Chester, Reed), 3:24.93
Girls’ Long Jump
Division 1
3: A’Lena Chaney, Jordan, 18-2.25
Girls’ High Jump
1: Rachel Glenn, Long Beach Wilson, 5-7
Division 4
5: Asjah Atkinson, St. Anthony, 17-3.5
Girls’ Discus
7: Cherish Washington, Lakewood, 118-07
9: Alaina English, Millikan, 104
Girls’ Shot Put
8: Crystal Fesili, Long Beach Poly, 35-3
Boys’ High Jump
6: Alan Tabales, Millikan, 6-2
Boys’ Shot Put
5: Noah Holm, Millikan, 53-10 (Masters Alternate)
