Just three seconds into San Marino High School’s 2nd round CIF basketball game against Barstow on Friday, Feb. 19, junior Chuma Azinge accepted a pass from teammate Michael Shahan, dribbled once and unleashed a thunderous slam dunk that electrified the home crowd and propelled the Titans on to a victory.
Many at the time may have wondered what Azinge could possibly do for an encore.
At the Rio Hondo League track finals last Friday evening, they got their answer. There, Azinge won 3 individual championships, qualifying for this Saturday’s CIF preliminaries in a total of four events and once again, left opponents shaking their collective heads.
Azinge won the 110-meter high hurdles in 15.6 seconds; soared 44’4” in the triple jump for another crown and cleared 6’0” in the high jump for a third. In the final event of the competition, he teamed with Brian Byrne, Wilson Lin and Jonathan Mak to take third place in the 4 x 100-meter relay in 44.69 to earn yet another berth at CIF.
Azinge told The Tribune on Tuesday that he will pass on the high jump to concentrate on the other three events.
Junior Anson Kwan cleared the bar at 11’0” to win the Rio Hondo League pole vault championship and also qualified for the next level.
Eric Lew claimed 2rd in the 1,600-meter run in a time of 4:43.86 and Byrne took 3rd in the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.93 to punch his ticket to Estancia High School.
Junior Olivia Ruiz finished 2nd in the 800-meter run, her clocking of 2:20 is a new personal record earning an invitation to CIF. Ruiz then joined Puja Balaji, Keila Barra, and Evelyn Tran to finish 3rd in the 4 x 400-meter relay in a CIF-qualifying time of 4:16.26.
In boys’ frosh-soph action, Justin Wang won the 200-meter dash in 24.63 and finished 3rd in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.2 and Christian Baffo won the pole vault by clearing 8’6.”
Wang joined Ethan Deng, Nicholas Kim and Benjamin Tang to claim third in the 4 x 100-meter relay in a time of 48.04 before teaming up with Austin Nguyen, Benjamin Tang and Joe Hindle, Justin Wang to finish 3rd in the 4 x 400-meter relay with a clocking of 3:50.44.
Tang took third in the 400-meter dash in a personal best time of 54.25.
Nathan Cheung finished 3rd in the high jump by leaping 5’4,” Darren Li shot put 35.4 to finish 3rd and Andrew Lu spun the discus 76.2 feet – a personal best – for 2nd place.
In girls’ junior varsity action, Kyana Huang posted personal bests in the 200 (28.48) and 400-meter (65.83) dashes, finishing 3rd in both races.
Meg Hannan claimed 2nd in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 5:49.18.
The 4 x 100-meter relay team of Huang, Sophia Battaglia, Katie Kirkendall and Gisele St. Geme took 3rd in 55.48 and Huang joined forces with Hannan, Kirkendall and Kimia Hassibi to finish third in the 4 x 400-meter relay in a time of 4:40.88.
“We had a good meet,” said Coach Angus Leung. “Some kids really stepped up and showed me something today.”
