Eric Enriquez has day to remember for Downey track

DOWNEY - The annual Downey-Warren track meet took place on April 18 at Downey High School and Downey narrowly defeated Warren, 68.7 to 67.3 to win their first S.G.V.L. outright championship in ten years.Downey opened up the meet by winning the 4X100 meter relay. Fabian Mendoza, Ismael Guerrero, Anthony Bravo and Quincy Chukwumezie crossed the finish line in first place. In the next event, Benjamin Gonzalez of Warren led the Bears in a sweep of the 1600 meters. Downey responded by sweeping the 110 hurdles, led by Quincy Chukwumezie, in the meet's third event. Warren answered back in the field events as Oswaldo Zarate won the shot put, John Ohakamnu won the long jump, Oscar Hererra won the discus, and Michael Onyebalu won the high jump. Downey's Eric Enriquez won the pole vault and Jaime Vega led a Viking sweep in the triple jump. Downey went 1-2 in the 400 meters as Fabian Mendoza and Ismael Guerrero crossed the finish line. Richardo Thomas continued the Downey point total with wins in both the 100 and 200 meter sprints. Eric Enriquez won the 800 meter run and Quincy Chukwumezie won the 300 hurdles. Warren's Benjamin Gonzalez won the 3200 meter run. The Downey-Warren track meet came down to the 4X400 meter relay. The Vikings sealed the win as the team of Ismael Guerrero, Anthony Bravo, Fabian Mendoza and Eric Enriquez crossed the finish line first. Downey followed up their S.G.V.L. championship by winning league finals. The S.G.V.L. championships were held last Friday at Warren High School and Downey finished first with 172 points, Warren was second with 157, Paramount was third with 102, Gahr was fourth with 42, Lynwood was fifth with 17 and Dominguez was sixth with 0 points, respectively. Downey's Dakari Archer won the high jump for the third straight year. Downey's Eric Enriquez won the 800 meter run as well as the pole vault. Enriquez also set a new school record at 15'3 in the pole vault. Luis Briceno won the triple jump with a jump of 43'3 and Quincy Chukwumezie won the 110 hurdles. The 4X400 meter relay team of Ismael Guerrero, Anthony Bravo, Fabian Mendoza and Eric Enriquez took first place with a time of 3:20:33 to conclude the meet. The 4X400 relay team set a new school record at league finals after breaking their own record set earlier this year. Downey's Eric Enriquez had a remarkable track meet. Enriquez finished with three first place finishes, two school records and one league record. He is currently being recruited by Missouri, Nebraska, UCSB and Cal Poly SLO.

********** Published: May 9, 2013 - Volume 12 - Issue 04