By Joe Snyder
Aliza Rush had to contend with her mother, Ange, in the hospital due to suffering cancer and nearly could not make the trip to Monte Vista High in San Diego for a youth club track meet last weekend.
Rush, who will enter the eighth grade at Culver City Middle School next month, decided to go and had very good results that included winning the 100-meter dash at 12.42 seconds last Sunday. She went on to place second in the 200 clocking 26.21.
Head coach Princeton Williams, also Serra High’s head track and field mentor, only had about half of his team make the trip due to a few other athletes having family emergencies.
Incoming eighth grader Genesis Hayes recorded her personal best time of 28.2 in the 200 in the prelims on Saturday.
Xcelarate had one of the top youth female track 4×100 relays in the state but they canceled out due to the shorthanded group.
Williams and his team agreed to even cancel their trip this week to Texas A&M University for the national meet as they hope for better things next year.
Rush has a personal record time of 12.2 in the 100 and 25.7 in the 200. The Xcelarate girls’ 4×100-meter relay team, that includes Rush, Gianni Jones, Hayes and Usara Wenack ran as fast as 50.3 in an earlier meet. Kailyn Battle also had outstanding races with best times of 12.7 in the 100 and 26.63 in the 200. Jones recorded best times of 13.0 in the 100, 26.7 in the 200 and 1:06 in the 400.
Also, nine-year-old Lyliah Mackey had a good meet with times of 16.0 in the 100, 34.6 in the 200 and 1:22 in the 400.
For the boys, Cameran Clark has run as fast as 11.8 in the 100, 25.3 in the 200 and one minute in the 400.
Williams is a Gardena High alum where he competed in football and track and field.
The Xcelarate practices at El Camino College.
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Olympics to begin this week
The greatest sporting event in the world, the Olympics, began on Wednesday with the Opening ceremonies on Friday in Paris.
There are numerous events that include basketball, track and field, swimming, gymnastics, surfing, skateboarding, BMX cycling, cycling, golf, rugby, world football (which we call soccer), water polo, field hockey, beach, and indoor volleyball, and many more you can name.
All eyes will be on sensation Simone Biles, who is competing in her second games; in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and in Paris. She sat out in 2020 (postponed to 2021 in Tokyo due to the Great Covid-19 Pandemic, due to personal issues but the rest of the Americans excelled with several more gold medals.
The United States has a long history of excelling in swimming and is expected to continue a very good showing in track and field. Look for the U.S. to possibly sweep basketball but the American men had a big scare from South Sudan before escaping with a 101-100 victory last Saturday in London. The U.S. won the game on a layup basket from Los Angeles Laker star La Bron James with eight seconds left in the game, then took advantage of a missed shot from South Sudan with four seconds remaining. Look for host France to also be a challenge behind some recent top draft choices in the National Basketball Association.
Carson High alum Marcus Tupuola is looking to help the United States rugby team for its first gold medal in rugby. Rugby was, in the last two times, won by the Fiji Islands. Our football was taken from rugby, invented in England in the early 19th century. American football came from rugby by the late 1860’s and it was more like rugby. No forward passes were allowed until the late legendary University of Notre Dame head coach Knute Rockne introduced it in the early 1900’s.
With the Olympics going on, next week will also be highlighted by the annual Surf Festival in the South Bay beaches, Hermosa, Manhattan, and Redondo, along with some activities at Torrance Beach. It runs from July 31 through Aug. 4. Also, the United States Open of Pro Surfing begins on Aug. 3 and lasts through Aug. 11 at Huntington Beach Pier.
The Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball team is still plagued with injuries but are expecting ace Clayton Kershaw to return from his shoulder injury to start against their rival San Francisco Giants today at 7 p.m. Sources are that another key pitcher, Tyler Glasnow, was expected to start on Wednesday. We are looking for them to return to health in quest of their eighth ever World Series championship this fall. The Dodgers began the post all-star break with a bang by sweeping the Boston Red Sox in an interleague series on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Dodger Stadium. It started on Friday, when Fred Freeman’s grand slam sparked the Dodgers to a 4-1 win. Last Saturday was a thriller as L.A. pulled out the game on a walk-off single by Will Smith in the bottom of the 11th inning for a 7-6 victory. On Sunday, the Dodgers finished off the sweep of Boston with a 9-6 victory behind a mammoth 473-foot home run from Shoji Otani that just cleared the entire Dodger Stadium, just the eighth time that it ever happened in the stadium’s 62-year history and the second by a Dodger. The other was from Mike Piazza in 1996. It was on to their rival Giants from Monday through tonight. They are still in first place in the National League Western Division at 59-41.
In prep football, Gardena, North Torrance, and Serra begin their practice next Monday. All start their season on Aug, 23 with the Panthers visiting Crespi in Encino, the Saxons hosting Long Beach Jordan and the Cavaliers beginning at home at Orange Lutheran. All games start at 7 p.m. Serra could be looking at a banner year after winning two of three passing tournaments, including stunning host St. John Bosco 22-7 to win the St. John Bosco Classic. Gardena returns most of its team from its Marine League championship and CIF-L.A. City Section Open Division semi-finalist squad and North will bring back the sophomore duo of quarterback Boogie Antema and his brother, wide receiver Kingston to contend for its second straight Pioneer League crown and go further in the CIF-Southern Section playoffs.
