Track Team Finishes Another Strong Season
Jonah Givens ('27)
Culver City High School Track has achieved a significant amount of success in recent years, with numerous record breaking performances and consistent race wins in meets. The girls team won the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section (CIFSS) division 2 championship in 2023, and the boys won last season in 2025. This season's teams are highlighted by stars Junior Jonah Givens who is ranked 11th in the entire nation in the long jump and Freshman Aliza Rush who is ranked the number 1 freshman in the state of California for the 100 and 200 meter races. Both have broken school records this season.
An exciting moment this season was California Relays, an annual track and field meet hosted at Long Beach Wilson High School on March 20th and 21st. This meet was overall very successful with many Centaurs reaching the podium. First, in the boys 4x100 relay Kaiden Patterson, Jonah Givens, Derrick Huezo Jr. and Taj Davis earned second place with a time of 42.41. In the girls 4x100 race, the team received second place with a time of 47.39. Also, in the boys 1600 meter race we saw 2 Centaurs in the top 5: senior Leo Marcus came in second place with a 4:42.88, and junior Charlie Pochon earned fifth place running a 4:44.41. Finally, the boys team also took home second place in the 4000 meter distance medley relay with Charlie Pochon, Leo Marcus, Diego Ramirez and Hayden Fogel running an 11:26.18.
The Arcadia Invitational is the most prestigious, historic and important track and field meet in the United States. It has been called a “proving ground” and “The Home of National Records.” In this meet, our girls 4x200 team ran a school record 1:38.28 and just barely missed the podium, finishing fourth. After that, Aliza Rush continued her sensational season by winning her heat with a time of 11.87 in the 100m race. To close out the weekend the CCHS girls team got second in the 4x100 and Jonah Givens came 8th in the long jump. Our Culver athletes put out such a strong performance against some of the best athletes in the country and have solidified themselves as one of the best track and field teams in the state.
The senior day meet for our Centaurs was on April 15th against Santa Monica High School at the track to celebrate the talented seniors who have spent years working hard on the CCHS track and field team. But these Seniors aren't done yet as the team made the Ocean league finals where CCHS faced off against Santa Monica High School and Lawndale High School on April 30th. Despite neither the boys team or girls team winning the whole meet, there were still many individual wins at the meet. The girls 4x400 team came out on top, booking themselves a spot in the CIF tournament. Nadhari Goodwin, Gianni Jones, Paris Jackson and Aliza Rush broke the school record for the 3rd time this season to win the girls 4x100 along with Rush herself winning the individual 100m (where she set the school record) and 200m race. The boys team won the 4x100 relay and Jonah Givens took home the medal in the long jump for CCHS.
All of these wins still occurred despite losing co-head coach and former Olympic athlete LaShinda Demus, who left CCHS to coach track and field at the University of Southern California before this season. Now under head coach Jamal Wright the teams have created new history for our school including league champions Aliza Rush and Jonah Givens setting new school records with Rush in the 100 meter with a time of 11.67 seconds and Givens in the long jump with a 24-0.50, breaking the record that was previously held by football player Kevin Beacham. Additionally, sophomore Luna Mizorogi vaulted 9ft 6in in the pole vault making her the second best pole vaulter in school history.
