Mallika Sen, Print Editor-in-Chief
Members of the track team have advanced to the CIF state competition for the third year in a row.
Senior Brianna Simmons and junior Alex Rohani will compete in the meet, held from June 1 to 2 at Buchanan in Clovis, Calif.
Simmons and Rohani advanced after qualifying at the CIF Southern Section Masters meet.  The two runners were the only Beverly athletes to participate in the Masters meet after their performance at the CIF Southern Section Division III Finals, where each set a school record.
At Finals, Simmons came in fifth in the 1600m in 4:54:06, breaking the school’s 1978 top record of 4:57:30.
Although Simmons achieved her two goals of qualifying for Masters and beating the school record, she says that “to survive in this sport, you can never settle, especially when you believe that it is [or] was your best performance.”
Rohani won the 400m in 47.37 seconds, breaking the 1998 school top record of 47.38 seconds and claiming the top rank in state.
“I don’t feel a lot of pressure being ranked number one in state because I just became one this past weekend, so I feel I caught most people by surprise,” Rohani said. “I still feel like an underdog because the number two guy in state placed second at the state meet last year and I haven’t made it there before.”
Rohani added that he felt they 400m was one of the hardest school records to break, and going into finals, he “just wanted a personal record.”
Rohani continued his success at the Masters Meet, where he won in 47.87 seconds and was the only runner to break 48 seconds, according to statistics compiled by Simon Langer.  Simmons came in tenth in the 1600m with 4:58:31; all twelve runners in that particular race qualified for the state meet.