Lauren Hannani culture editor
The varsity track team competed and won in its first dual meet of the season against Hawthorne High School on Thursday, March 15, at home.
In the girls and boys varsity 4×100 meter relay, Beverly placed first with team captain Leticia Valle and junior Sammy Yates running the fastest portions of their respective relay teams. Valle believes the early lead gave the entire team motivation and more energy for the remainder of the event.  
“I think taking the lead in the first race puts the whole team in a positive mood,” Valle said. “I especially get even more energized and excited for the rest of the meet.”
Later, sophomore Sophia Mantville and junior Aaron Selikovitz placed first in the mile run with a time of 6:38 and 4:56, respectively.
For the 100 meter hurdles events, senior Zoe Hinton and junior Alon Tamir both placed first.
“It feels great. I am very proud of myself, and I’m also really happy because I broke my personal best,” Hinton said. “And of course, I’m very proud of the team for how hard they ran and their commitment to performing well.”
Valle is also very proud of the team for winning in all races during yesterday’s meet and looks forward to doing even better in the upcoming events.
“I think our team did really well today, considering that it was our first meet. There is still a lot of improvement that needs to take place, but I am sure that these coming weeks leading up to CIF, we will showcase our best abilities and succeed,” Valle said. “Track and field is a very chaotic sport, with more than one event taking place at the same time. For this reason, we all need to be supportive and display a general sense of unity.”
The track team’s next meet will be on Thursday, March 22, at home against El Segundo.