Grayson Leads Way for Taft at Prelims

She was the least heralded of Taft High’s four young guns at the start of the season, but sophomore Eboni Grayson will play a major role in the Toreadors’ quest to unseat defending champion Dorsey in next week’s City Section track and field championships.

That became obvious in the City preliminaries at Birmingham High on Thursday as Grayson won heats of the 100 and 200 meters, led qualifying in the long jump and ran a leg on the Toreadors’ 400 relay team that placed second in their heat.

Standing 5 feet 4 and weighing all of about 105 pounds, the diminutive Grayson ran a wind-aided 12.25 seconds in the 100, 25.69 in the 200 and long-jumped a wind-aided 18 feet 1 3/4 inches.

“The 200 felt good,” she said. “I got out of the blocks well and worked the turn.”

Grayson was particularly happy with her performance in the long jump. She had competed in the event when she was in junior high, but had dropped it from her repertoire last year before taking it up in earnest again this season.

“I’m most proud of the long jump,” she said. “I’m starting to feel good in it again.”

Grayson was one of two Taft athletes who qualified for the City finals in four events. The other was sophomore Francis Santin, the most highly regarded of Taft’s big four at the start of the season.

Santin had the fastest qualifying time in the 300 low hurdles (45.83) and the third-fastest time in the 100 highs (15.0). She also ran anchor legs on relay teams that clocked 50.48 in the 400 and 4 minutes 5.54 seconds in the 1,600.

The Toreadors’ clocking in the 400 relay was well off their season best of 49.40, but Grayson said they’ll be ready next week.

“We’ll be fine,” she said. “We didn’t run well today, but we’ll be there next week.”

Roderick Crow of El Camino Real, Ali Benmohamed of Monroe, Tiffany Burgess of Birmingham and Kim Pickup of Chatsworth were some of the other local athletes who qualified for the City finals in at least two events.

Crow, the City leader in the 400 at 47.9, had the second-fastest qualifying time in that event at 49.26 and grabbed the eighth--and final--qualifying spot in the 200 with a wind-aided 22.23. He was also the fourth qualifier in the triple jump with a mark of 44-2.

Benmohamed posted the second-fastest qualifying times in both the 1,600 and 3,200, running 4:46.55 in the former and a personal best of 9:45.82 in the latter.

Burgess, a freshman who led Birmingham to its first City title in cross-country last November, easily won her heats in the 800 and 1,600 with personal bests of 2:25.50 and 5:25.51.

Pickup, the defending City champion in the pole vault, was one of six performers to clear 6-6 in that event and one of nine to clear 4-10 in the high jump. She also qualified sixth in the long jump and seventh in the triple jump with wind-aided marks of 16-8 1/4 and 34-1 1/4.