Old River wins rainy Carnival of Champions
DOWNEY – Old River Elementary School took home first place at the 58th annual Dale Lostetter Carnival of Champions on Saturday, hosted by Warren High School.
Old River won the championship for the seventh time in school history. Following in second and third place were the Lewis Elementary All-Stars and Price Elementary Panthers, respectively.
Despite the rain, hundreds of families and student supporters filled the stands at Justice Stadium and cheered their athletes on the field while DJ Schiavo played upbeat music throughout the competition.
To boost school pride and excitement, two new events featuring all elementary school mascots were added. In the end, the Old River School Gator won first place in a humorous Mascot Race while the Gallatin Elementary Grizzly danced its way to Mascot Dance-Off glory.
Returning to the Carnival of Champions since becoming a Global Languages Academy of Downey school, the Carpenter Elementary athletes competed in all fourth grade events this first year back.
“I could not be prouder of our students, staff and families for their preparation for this year’s competition,” said Board of Education President Nancy Swenson. “Even through the bouts of rain, our students especially demonstrated their commitment to sportsmanship. Students gave each other pep talks at the starting line and congratulated and consoled each other at the finish line. It’s clear our coaches and families helped to instill the pillars of Character Counts in each of our athletes.
“I also want to extend a huge thanks to our school mascots for the entertaining dance-off and mascot race this year. What a great new addition to this wonderful and fun-filled event.”
This year’s Carnival of Champions saw more than 400 students from 11 of the 13 elementary schools in Downey Unified compete in seven track and field events: baskets in a minute, softball throw for distance, standing long jump, 50-meter dash, 100-meter dash, four-member team 400-meter relay and mixed-coed relay.
