The Culver City High School 2023-24 athletic season ended last Saturday at Buchanan HS in Clovis California at the CIF state track and field meet finals. It was a near perfect Hollywood ending for the Centaurs track team.
There are more than 1,200 high schools in California and Culver City placed second in the girls 200 meters, third in the girls and boys 400 meters and fourth in the boys 4X400 meter relay. Morgan Maddox was second in the 200 meters with a time of 23.60, she placed third in the 400 meters clocking 54.03 and Duaine Mayrant placed third in the boys 400 with a time of 47.33. The boys 4X400 meter relay came in fourth clocking 3:13.97.
The state track and field meet is a two-day meet. Last Friday was the preliminaries and Saturday was the finals. It’s one of the hardest high school meets in the nation to make it to the finals and five Centaurs athletes made it. Also, the girls 4X100 relay missed the finals when they placed 10th. Only the top nine teams made it to the finals in that race.
“I am proud of the team,” said co-head coach Jahmal Wright last Sunday. “Coach (LaShinda) Demus did a great job with the girls and the boys. “We came into the state meet with high expectations. We definitely wanted to be on top but when you reflect of the season, we are extremely happy the way things turned out.”
Last season the girls’ team, led by one of the fastest 200- and 400-meter runners in the nation, Joelle Trepagnier help put the Centaur girls on the nation stage, but this year Maddox had to step up after Trepagnier suffered a season ending injury during the middle of the season.
“Morgan is a seasoned athlete and we expected her to do well because she has made it to the state meets the last few years and we were happy that she placed second and third in her events,” said co-head coach LaShinda Demus, who is a former world class runner.
“Morgan has been consistent all year and she showed her senior leadership,” said Wright. “For four years she put in a lot of hard work and dedication.” Maddox is leaving Culver City as a 3-time state finalist in the 400 meters, a 2-time finalist in the 200 meters and a state champion last year in the 4X400 meter relay. She is also a member of the schools’ record setting 4X100 and 4X400 meter relays. “She is one of the top female sprinters ever to run at Culver City high school,” said Wright.
The boys team surprised a lot of people but according to Wright they showed flashes of greatness during off season work outs. “For the boys it was tremendous,” said Demus. “It was the first time for all the boy athletes to make it to the state meet so I think to be on that stage and their relay team to be one of the top 10 teams in the country is tremendous. I was really happy for them.”
All of the boys on the 4X400 relay team are returning next year. Dontay Mayrant, Kingston Waring, Asher Samuel and Duaine Mayrant are coming back to write another chapter in the Culver City HS track history books. “They are so hungry,” said Demus. “Our goal next season is to break the national record in the 4X400 relay, and we I would like to see Duaine and Dontay run in the 46s and maybe 45 in the 400 meters and Kingston run in the 36s in the 300 hurdles and Asher lower his time in the 800 meters.” The way the boys improved this year the sky’s the limit in 2025.
