Canoga Park’s Custodio Jumps Into the Spotlight

Senior Eric Custodio of Canoga Park High stood in near solitude at the high jump apron at Brimingham High on Thursday afternoon awaiting his attempt at 6 feet 2 inches.

The stadium had virtually emptied after the final running events, so, with an audience of a high jump judge and two Sylmar cheerleaders on the field and about 30 Canoga Park teammates bunched in the stands, Custodio proceeded to sail over the bar for a Valley Pac-8 Conference championship meet record.

It was one of 11 meet records set Thursday. The top five finishers in each event advance to the City Section preliminaries May 9-10 at Birmingham.

Perhaps the most impressive individual performances came from Canoga Park senior Alvin Edington in the 100 meters and 300 intermediate hurdles and North Hollywood sophomore Oshonda Posey in the 100, 200 and both hurdles races.

Edington weathered a difficult transition from basketball to track and overcame Birmingham’s vaunted sprint corps to win the 100 in a wind-hampered 10.8 seconds. Edington later held off Van Nuys’ Jason Gibbs in the 300 hurdles en route to a meet-record and personal-best 39.9.

“In basketball, there’s a lot of stop and go, but in track, it’s totally different,” Edington said. “In track, it’s just go, (and) I was plagued by a hamstring injury at the beginning of the season.”

Birmingham’s Tony Serpas and Patrick Abdelkerim placed second and third, respectively, in the 100 at 11.2 and teammate Mike Moguel was fourth in 11.5.

“I’m surprising a lot of people,” Edington said. “I think they (Birmingham’s sprinters) came in here expecting to beat everybody like they had all year.”

Serpas, Abdelkerim, Moguel and Manual Goodman combined for a meet-record 42.9 in winning the 400 relay, beating the Canoga Park quartet (44.8) by about 12 meters after the Hunters botched the handoff between No. 2-runner Kevin Maxie and No. 3 Reggie Welch. The same four Birmingham runners notched a meet-record 3:26.7 in winning the 1,600 relay.

Posey recorded wins in the girls’ 200 (26.1) and 300 low hurdles (48.3) and broke meet records in the 100 and 100 low hurdles.

Posey churned to an eight-meter lead after about 30 meters in the 100 and held the margin to beat Canoga Park’s Monique Baxter in 12.2. Baxter was second in 13.0. Posey won the 100 low hurdles, beating teammate Kimberlee Allen by 12 meters in 16.0.

Birmingham pole vaulter Howard Schrier needed only one attempt at 13-6 to win his second conference title in a row and set a meet record.

Other meet records were set by Monroe’s Bobby Wiley in the 3,200 (9:48.6); Birmingham’s Darrell Moore and Sherman Oaks CES’ BiKemba Wright in the long jump (tied at 21-5 1/2); Grant’s Miguel Gonzalez in the shotput (47-11 1/4); and Poly’s Carmel McLurkin in the girls’ triple jump (34-2 1/2).