This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

BHHS Track Looks to Make Its Mark

Rohani and Gray will compete for the 400 and 800 titles at the Southern Section finals.

The CIF Southern Section Division 2 track and field championships take place on Saturday at Cerritos College and Beverly Hills High School has athletes in four events.

Alex Rohani is the No. 1 sophomore in California and the fourth-fastest 10th-grader in the country in the 400 meters with a time of 47.90 seconds. He holds the freshman/sophomore record and third fastest all-time record at BHHS.

Rohani had the fastest qualifying time and thus is the favorite to win Saturday's race. He also broke the school freshman/sophomore record in the 200 meters by clocking 22.10 and helped set two school relay records.

Meanwhile, senior Sydney Gray is vying for the girls 800 title after running a personal-best 2:14.52 for the fastest qualifying time last week. Normans Coach Jeff Fisher is confident Gray will emerge victorious Saturday after watching her lead from start to finish in the Ocean League finals meet, then come from fourth with 100 meters to go to win at prelims. 

Find out what's happening in Beverly Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Sydney has battled through some unfortunate circumstances this year," Fisher said. "She missed most of the cross country season with a tumor on her leg and suffered from anemia throughout the track season. She's our captain and has the fifth-fastest 800 time in school history. She has really grown as a competitor."

Also competing in the girls 800 is junior Brianna Simmons, who had a breakout season and ran 2:18 at prelims. In the fall she broke five school records and one league record in cross country. 

Find out what's happening in Beverly Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The girls and boys 4x400 relay teams also qualified for the section finals.

The girls team consists of Gray and sophomores Vanessa Torres, Allison Wolff and Lily Ting. They ran a personal-best 4:01 to finish runner up in their heat and snatch the ninth and last qualifying spot at prelims. Torres was league champion in the 400. The alternates are sophomore Alison Wolff and freshman Carmen Gratz.

The boys foursome is made up of juniors Cameron Countryman and Joel Steinberg, and sophomores Rohani and Chanan Batra, who is among the top 10 sophomores in the state in the 800.

"I think the boys have a real shot in their race," Fisher said. "I'm very proud of the girls for qualifying considering we lost all of our sprinters from last year."

The BHHS boys won their heat and had the third-fastest time overall (3:22). Senior Mario Conti and junior Willie Green will be the alternates.

Be sure to follow Beverly Hills Patch on Twitter and "Like" us on Facebook.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?