The562’s coverage of cross country and track and field is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly athletics in the 2022-23 school year is sponsored by Poly alum Jayon Brown and PlayFair Sports Management.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly athletics in the 2022-23 school year is sponsored by JuJu Smith-Schuster and the JuJu Foundation.
The562’s coverage of Millikan athletics in the 2022-23 school year is sponsored by Curtis Boyer.
The 2022 cross country season came to a close over the weekend at Woodward Park in Fresno as the state’s top runners competed in the CIF State Cross Country Championships.
The Long Beach Poly girls’ team was the only full squad competing from Long Beach, and the Jackrabbits raced to a 13th place finish in Division 1. Freshman Avery Peck was the top finisher for the green & gold, also finishing 13th place with a time of 18:12.
Only three freshmen ran better times than Peck at the state finals, and she remained the fastest ninth grader from the Southern Section in D1.
The rest of the Jackrabbits started towards the back and made up spots as the race went on. Senior Camille Lindsay, competing in her second state meet, moved up from the 72nd position after mile one to finish just outside the top 50 with a time of 19:06.
Junior Evelyn Hernandez Lujan finished in a time of 20:15, while senior Alexa Bryson (20:38) and sophomore Brynn Jolly (20:42) finished back-to-back. Sophomore Emily Chun (21:07) and senior Paige O’Dell (21:45) rounded out the Poly lineup.
In the boys’ race, we saw another exciting finish out of the year-long rivalry between Poly’s Cameron Rhone and Millikan’s Jason Parra. The two runners were separated by just seven tenths of a second, as Rhone was able to come back and barely clip Parra at the line to finish in fifth place.
Rhone’s time of 15:13.0 made him the second-fastest individual competitor in the D1 race, while Parra was the third-fastest with a time of 15:13.7. It was Parra’s second time competing at the state meet and the junior will certainly be looking for a third attempt next season. He was the fastest returner in the race, as all five runners who finished above him are seniors.
Parra actually led the race after the first mile, running a split of 4:39.7 to hold about a six-second lead. A little after the two-mile checkpoint, Parra was in third place, while Rhone had moved up from ninth to seventh in that span. That trend continued over the final mile as Rhone made up the 10-second deficit to edge Parra at the tape–a finish reminiscent of the league opener at El Dorado Park.
CLICK HERE for complete results from this year’s state championships.
