Sydney Gray Crowned The Division 2 800m Champ In The CIF Finals Meet

Vanessa Torres, Lily Ting, Allison Wolff and Sydney Gray

By Dupé Aleru|May 25, 2011|8:24 a.m.

Senior Sydney Gray of BHHS was crowned the Division 2 800m Champion in last week’s CIF Division 2 Finals meet held at Cerritos College, in Norwalk.

Gray is the first track and field athlete to win CIF Finals since 1998. Overcoming a disappointing cross country season weighed down by injuries, Gray was able to persevere amongst her obstacles, landing the title of Division 2 CIF Girl’s Champion in the 800 m run with a time of 2:13.51. This spectacular time qualifies her for the CIF Masters Meet to be held today at 4 p.m. at Cerritos College.

Being Beverly’s sole qualifier, Gray will need to run the same time today as she did at CIF Finals in order to qualify for State. The qualifying standard for State is 2:14.09.

Brianna Simmons also ran the 800m race, finishing in seventh place in a time of 2:18.83. Barely missing the qualifying time, Simmons will get another chance next year, as she is a junior at Beverly.

The girls 4x400m Relay of Vanessa Torres, Sydney Gray, Lily Ting and Allison Wolff took eighth place in the CIF Finals in a time of 4:01.61. Gray brought the team 10 points by placing first, Simmons received two points for seventh and the relay received one point for eighth; therefore, the girls’ team tied for 16^th place in the CIF Finals with a total of 13 points.

Alex Rohani finished in third place for the boys 400m in a time of 48.94, scoring seven points for the Beverly team. The boys’ 4x400m relay of Joel Steinberg, Cameron Countryman, Chanan Batra and Alex Rohani finished in seventh place in a time of 3:23.06 for two points.  The team’s nine points tied for 25^th in the CIF Finals.