The562’s cross country and track & field coverage is sponsored by Joe Carlson & Debbie Hughes.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell “WoWo” Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.
Long Beach Poly had a busy start to April at the 98th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, where the Jackrabbits posted impressive times including both of the nation’s leading marks in the boys’ and girls’ 1600m sprint medley relays. They did so just a week before the Arcadia Invitational this weekend, where they have 34 entries scheduled between Friday and Saturday.
For the boys, Malachi Dawson, Jaylen McNeil, Noah Smith and Darieon Shufford ran a 3:23.86 to take the No. 1 spot in the country, 31 hundredths ahead of Katy High School (TX), which posted the nation’s second-best time behind Poly. According to Athletic.net, the time is also a school record, breaking Poly’s previous mark set in 2022 which was also at the Texas Relays.
In similar fashion, the girls’ 1600m SMR team posted a 3:57.98 from Aniyah Brooks, Brooklyn Lee, Aliyah Stokes and Laila Kirk, again beating Katy, which recorded the nation’s second-best time behind Poly. The mark ranks as the Jackrabbits’ third-best in school history, with the record-holding team posting a 3:56.03 at Mt. SAC in 2010.
Both of Poly’s 4x100m teams finished ninth after the Jackrabbits’ boys team recorded the second-best time in the state at the Chandler Rotary Invitational a few weeks ago. The boys also ran 1:27.20 for a new California No. 7 in the 4x200m prelims, while the girls posted a new No. 5 mark in the 4x400m with a time of 3:52.63.
Poly also found some strong individual performances in the hurdle events, where Lynnox Newton set a new California No. 2 mark in the 110m hurdles with a 13.83 to place fourth. For the girls, junior Kadence Bain ran a 42.76 in the 300m hurdles to finish sixth, the third-best time in the state, while also running a 13.97 in the 100m hurdles prelims.
The Jackrabbits had just two sprinters compete but had promising times on both the boys and girls sides. Malachi Dawson ran a 10.58 mark in the the boys’ 100m prelims, while Aniyah Brooks went 11.68 in the girls’ 100m prelims as the No. 7 mark in the state this year.
Senior Jepthte Tchami helped earn Poly some recognition in the field events, throwing 154-01 in the discus and 53-00.75 in the shot put. Tchami recently set a school record of 175-10 in the discus at the Redondo Nike Invitational in March.
