51st Annual Carnival of Champions
May 19, 2017
Saturday, April 29, was the Elementary School Event, Carnival of Champions, an event for fourth and fifth grade elementary school students in the Downey Unified School District. Throughout the school year, teachers at the nine elementary schools in Downey hold tryouts for various events like baskets in a minute, long jump, softball throw, 100 meter dash, 50 meter dash, 400 meter relay, and the co-ed 400 meter relay. This event takes place at Warren High School; it starts off in the WHS gym and then moves out to the football field for the last two events.
Students, parents and staff look forward to watching the annual Carnival of Champions. This is the fourth active year since the short pause from 2010-2013, due to budget issues. Watching the students come up with cheers and express their athletic and competitive sides is something the school staff enjoy and appreciate.
“I love coming out here and watching the students compete; it brings out their inner athlete and that isn’t something you get to see a lot in elementary school,” Ms. Mullen said. “I’m really happy they brought this event back to the schools.”
Alejandro, fifth grader from Gallatin, was able to represent his school for his final year of elementary school. He placed 1st out of the fifth graders for softball throw, holding his title from previous year in fourth grade.
“I feel excited and good to represent my school,” Alejandro said. “I’m going to miss my coaches and being a part of representing my school.”
Not only was there close competition in the gym and on the field, but also on the track. Throughout the 100 meter dash and the 50 meter dash, teachers and staff were impressed with the amount of speed the students had. Various amounts of times students came in milliseconds away from the last, causing the teachers to go back and look at videos to determine the winner of some races, giving this event more excitement than it already had.
“I think this is the fastest group of kids we’ve dealt with,” Mr. Davis said. “There are multiple races where it came down to who would extend their leg out further. We’ve never had to go back to video for more than one race.”
After calculating the results, Old River Elementary school came out to take the title, with 225 points, for the fourth year in a row, second place went to Rio San Gabriel Elementary School, and third place to Maude Price Elementary School. The fourth grade students of the three schools plan of training harder and coming back stronger to do better than this year.
