Wendell \u201cWoWo\u201d Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.<\/a><\/p>\nIn the midst of a long stretch leading up to the CIF State meet, the Long Beach Poly track and field team returned to the Arcadia Invitational with a full slate of athletes, and the Jackrabbits managed a pair of first-place finishes over the weekend as they continue to peak at the right time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to make sure that kids that were ready were put out into the fire, and the ones that were not, we know we have time,\u201d said Poly coach Crystal Irving. \u201cThis meet is a great indicator to see what we need to work on, what we need to maintain, and what we need to get better at. We did some different combinations on the relays and it panned out to be good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jackrabbits kicked off the weekend with a win in the girls\u2019 800m sprint medley relay, running a 1:44.17 from seniors Faith Magee, Aniyah Brooks, Aliyah Stokes and freshman Laila Kirk. The mark sets the top time in the country, just a week after Poly ran the nation\u2019s top time in the 1600m SMR at the Texas Relays.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s invitational slate opened with the boys\u2019 and girls\u2019 4x100m relays, where the Jackrabbits surprisingly scratched both events. Irving indicated that the Jackrabbits\u2019 status in each race was treated as necessary, as they\u2019re coming off the Texas Relays with the Mt. SAC this week before their dual with Wilson to close out the regular season.<\/p>\n
Poly did, however, run in the 4x400m relay to close the night, with Isaiah Jones added to the lineup on the first leg. Jones, alongside Darieon Shufford, Jaylen McNeil and Noah Smith, ran a 3:12.53 to place second, finishing three seconds behind Bullis (Maryland), which featured Olympic gold medalist Quincy Wilson, who also won the 400m invitational.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the boys\u2019 400 was an eye-opener not just for our young men but for all young men, because they really should\u2019ve been leaning at the line and not watching the race from within. There\u2019s no reason to get starstruck\u2014everyone\u2019s just a normal athlete,\u201d Irving said. \u201cBut I\u2019m glad to see everyone got it together in the mile relay, and they stepped up and came through.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jackrabbits had one individual winner on Saturday in senior hurdler Lynnox Newton, who ran a 13.88 to win the seeded 110m hurdles. Newton also competed in the open 300m hurdles and emphasized his room for growth as he approaches the final stretch of his senior year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted to see what I could do because I had a bad race last week, and I was kind of angry because I didn\u2019t make the invitational,\u201d Newton admitted. \u201cBut to be able to come out here at Arcadia and win, whether it\u2019s seeded or not, it\u2019s an honor. Now I just gotta keep working hard and keep consistent times, and try and PR every race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Armon Bly also had a strong outing in the open hurdle events, setting personal bests in both the 110m and 300m hurdles. Bly ran a 14.31 to place fourth in the open 110m hurdles and a 38.65 to finish 11th in the open 300m hurdles.<\/p>\n
On the girls\u2019 side, Irving said she was pleased with the performance from senior sprinter Aniyah Brooks, who competed in the invitational 100m along with the seeded 200m. Brooks recorded a new personal best of 11.65 in the 100m to place seventh, while running a 24.73 in the 200m to finish sixth.<\/p>\n
Saturday also provided an opportunity to see standout freshman Laila Kirk in the invitational events, where she ran a 2:15.06 in the 800m to place eighth. Kirk also anchored the girls\u2019 800m sprint medley relay win and ran the first leg on Poly\u2019s 4x400m relay.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad she\u2019s getting the type of competition to keep her hungry,\u201d Irving said of Kirk. \u201cShe\u2019s always excited and she just brings our whole team together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jackrabbits will compete at the Mt. SAC Relays starting Thursday before closing out the regular season in a dual meet with Wilson on April 21. The Moore League Finals will be held April 30, followed by the CIF Finals on May 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next few weeks are most important because we have league at the end of this month,\u201d Irving said. \u201cBy the end of this month, I\u2019m expecting everything to come together that\u2019s supposed to come together. At that time we\u2019ll move forward with whatever God blesses us with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long Beach Poly\u2019s Full Results:<\/p>\n
Friday:<\/p>\n
Girls\u2019 4x800m Relay Seeded: 19th, 10:10.66, (S. Young, S. Hooks, E. Dupree, M. Landa)<\/p>\n
Boys\u2019 4x800m Rated: 20th, 8:16.40, (D. Shufford, P. Weaver, J. Cruz, A. Requejo)<\/p>\n
Girls\u2019 800 Sprint Medley Relay Invitational: 1st, 1:44.17, (F. Magee, A. Brooks, A. Stokes, L. Kirk)<\/p>\n
Boys\u2019 800 Sprint Medley Relay Invitational: 4th, 1:30.65, (S. Hunter, M. Dawson, J. McNeil, I. Jones)<\/p>\n
Saturday:<\/p>\n
Boys\u2019 110 Hurdles Open: Armon Bly, 4th, 14.31<\/p>\n
Girls\u2019 400m Open: Aliyah Stokes, 27th, 57.39<\/p>\n
Girls\u2019 400m Open: Arianna Thomas, 40th, 58.33<\/p>\n
Boys\u2019 400m Open: Jaylen McNeil, 11th, 48.63<\/p>\n
Boys\u2019 400m Open: Isaiah Jones, 18th, 49.04<\/p>\n
Boys\u2019 300m Hurdles Open: Armon Bly, 11th, 38.65<\/p>\n
Boys\u2019 300m Hurdles Open: Lynnox Newton, 18th, 39.10<\/p>\n
Boys\u2019 Shot Put Open: Jephte Tchami, 13th, 52\u2032 4\u2033<\/p>\n
Boys\u2019 110m Hurdles Seeded: Lynnox Newton, 1st, 13.88<\/p>\n
Girls\u2019 100m Hurdles Invitational: Kadence Bain, 8th, 14.28<\/p>\n
Girls\u2019 100m Invitational: Aniyah Brooks, 7th, 11.65<\/p>\n
Girls\u2019 800m Invitational: Laila Kirk, 8th, 2:15.06<\/p>\n
Boys\u2019 400m Invitational: Noah Smith, 7th, 48.16<\/p>\n
Girls\u2019 300m Hurdles Invitational: Kadence Bain, 7th, 43.35<\/p>\n
Girls\u2019 200m Seeded: Aniyah Brooks, 6th, 24.73<\/p>\n
Girls\u2019 4\u00d7400 Relay Invitational: 6th, 3:54.22, (L. Kirk, A. Stokes, A. Thomas, K. Bain)<\/p>\n
Boys\u2019 4\u00d7400 Relay Invitational: 2nd, 3:12.53, (I. Jones, D. Shufford, J. McNeil, N. Smith)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s cross country and track & field coverage is sponsored by Joe Carlson & Debbie Hughes. The562\u2019s coverage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-266412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}