BHHS Results at Section Track Finals

Beverly Hills High School senior seems to improve with every race she runs and has a state berth in her sights.

Gray won the 800-meter run at the CIF Southern Section Division 2 Championships on Saturday at Cerritos College and in so doing qualified for the Master's Meet this Friday night at the same venue.

Saturday's race unfolded in similar fashion to Gray's win in the Division 2 preliminaries when she passed three runners in the final 100 meters to win.

"Her race came down to the wire," Normans coach Jeff Fisher said. "Sydney was in second place and had to battle the last 100 meters for the win. She ran a great race and if she does well again [Friday] she can move on to state."

Gray is Beverly Hills' first track athlete to win a Southern Section championship since 1998 and her time of 2:13.51 moves her into fourth place on the school's all-time list. Raquel Hefflin, now a freshman running for the UC Riverside women's team, set the Normans record of 2:11.12 at the state meet last spring.  

Saturday's meet didn't go nearly as well for the rest of the BHHS team.

Junior Brianna Simmons finished seventh in the 800-meter race with a time of 2:18.83 and the BHHS girls 4x400 relay team of Gray and sophomores Vanessa Torres, Allison Wolff and Lily Ting finished eighth with a time of 4:01.61. It had placed second in its heat in prelims to secure the ninth and last spot in Saturday's race. 

On the boys side, sophomore Alex Rohani was the favorite in the 400-meter race after running the fastest qualifying time. However, Rohani strained his hip flexor Thursday and still was not close to 100 percent by the time of his race Saturday. Rohani gave it a go and finished third in 48.94—well off his personal best of 47.90—and failed to advance to the Masters Meet.

"He was limping all day Friday and we were uncertain if he was even going to be able to run Saturday," Fisher said. "He ended up running but was not at his best. It's too bad because he would've had a great chance of winning if he wasn't hurt."

Rohani had entered Saturday's meet as the best sophomore in California and the fourth-fastest 10th-grader in the country in the 400 meters. He is Beverly Hills' freshman/sophomore record holder and has the school's third-fastest time ever in that event. He also owns the school's freshman/sophomore 200 meters record of 22.10 seconds.

After qualifying third overall, the Normans' 4x400 boys relay finished seventh in the finals, clocking 3:23.06. Saturday's foursome consisted of juniors Cameron Countryman and Joel Steinberg, and sophomores Rohani and Chanan Batra, who is one of the 10 fastest 10th-graders in the state in the 800 meters. Senior Mario Conti and junior Willie Green were the alternates.

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