Track and field, long a Southern California stronghold in San Diego, celebrated some powerful performances.

Lincoln lost only a late-season, nonleague dual meet at Helix, 57-47, won its third straight Eastern League dual meet championship and the San Diego Section title for the second year in a row, and contended for the state team championship.

The Hornets’ Vernus Ragsdale and James Kennedy, and Hoover’s John Garrison put up numbers that ranked high in California and in the nation.

3/9/62

Lincoln’s Vernus Ragsdale won the 100-yard dash in :09.8 and 220 in :22.2, and anchored a come-from-behind 880-yard relay victory in 1:32.2 in cold, blustery weather, but host Grossmont (47) outpointed the Hornets (42) and Compton Centennial (40) in the season-opening triangular meet.

3/14/62

Ray Alexander doubled in the 100 and 220 in :09.9 and :21.9 and Gavin Riley logged a 1:58.8 880 in Point Loma’s 68 2/3-35 1/3 dual meet win over Mount Miguel.

3/15/62

Lincoln beat Hoover, 58 ½-36 ½ in an Eastern League dual at Hoover that had moments of comic drama.

Hoover’s John Koethe “won” the 220-yard dash, shocking unbeaten Vernus Ragsdale,  and Rags’ teammates and followers, his “posse” in 21^st century nomenclature.

Koethe covered the distance over the tight curve and traditionally slow Cardinals track in a stunning :21.1.  Ragsdale, 10 yards behind, was in disbelief at the finish line, as were all in the stands.

DREADED ADMINISTRATIVE GLITCH

What happened?

The maintenance and grounds personnel at Hoover had erred when lining the track and putting down the runners’ lime lane markings. The crew created a lane that required Koethe to cover only approximately 205 yards.

Even Koethe was nonplussed as he was congratulated by a swarm of red-clad teammates. A good quarter miler (:50.4), the Princeton-bound junior had not run better than :23.6 in the 220.

The lane error was discovered and, after a few minutes of raised voices and arm waving by Lincoln coach Bobby Smith and  Cardinals boss Raleigh Holt, the race was declared no contest and the event’s nine points were erased.

3/24/62

Vernus Ragsdale bolted to a :09.5 100-yard dash in the National City Junior Chamber of Commerce Relays at Sweetwater.

Ragsdale’s  was the second fastest, to Roscoe Cook’s wind-aided :09.4 in 1957, ever run by a San Diego-area prep.

There was no wind gauge on site, so Ragsdale’s feat, whether it was above or under the allowable 4.447 miles per hour, took on questionable status.

I was the writer covering the event for the Evening Tribune, which carried a headline over my weekly, follow-up With the Preps column, “Let the Wind Blow, National City JC’s Will Never Know.”

Reaction to the story and the headline, which I did not write, resulted in my receiving an unfriendly telephone call from Sweetwater athletic director Tom Parker.

“Mr. Smith, you no longer are welcome at Sweetwater,” was the gist of Parker’s comments.

Almost 50 years later, at a luncheon of retired track coaches, the late Rich Gehring, a hard-working and principled coach for three decades, unsmilingly repeated to me the no-wind-gauge headline.

Wind gauges were used mostly at more major events, such as the CIF championships.

The relays were staffed by Gehring and volunteer junior chamber of commerce personnel.

I should have taken a more temperate approach and at least given Gehring or the Jaycees an opportunity to respond.

3/30/62

Lincoln beat San Diego, 58 ½-45 ½, in the pivotal Eastern League dual before a roaring crowd at Lincoln (including many watching from behind a fence hundreds of yards away on Imperial Avenue) as Vernus Ragsdale won the 100 in :09.8 and 220 in :22.1 and then made a rare appearance in the broad jump, finishing third at 22 feet, behind teammate Walter Scott’s 23 ¾.

Twins Elmer and Eddie Logans kept San Diego close, Eddie winning the 440 in :50.3 and Elmer the 120-yard high hurdles in :15.4 and 180-yard lows in :19.8.

FAST SAINTSMAN

The Crawford track, perched on a high plateau and offering favorable breezes from the West, was the site of many good 100-yard dash times, the latest a :09.7 by St. Augustine’s Henry (Bunny) Daniels.

4/10/62

Bruce Long pole vaulted 13 feet, 5 inches, and raised his Point Loma school record in a 77-26 win over Mission Bay.

Bryce Santry had set a Pointers record of 12-9 in the 1935 Metropolitan League finals.  Santry competed with a bamboo pole and became a vocal critic of the modern, more flexible fiberglass implement (“It’s like a pogo stick,” complained Santry) used by Long and others.

Santry went so far as to bring a pressure gauge to one Long’s meets, comparing the minimal flex of a bamboo pole with Long’s implement.

Long and Point Loma coach Ed Thomas, who approved  Santry’s appearance after Santry had contacted me at the newspaper, regarded the demonstration with subdued amusement.

4/12/62

Monte Vista’s Lynn Chenowth took the section lead with a 13-foot, 6 ½-inch pole vault and was second in the 180-yard low hurdles and high jump but La Jolla shook off a wind-biting cold at Scripps Field and won the dual meet, 68-36.

4/13/62

Helix won its fifth consecutive Grossmont League dual, 77-25, over El Capitan and miler Ted Hack lowered his section-leading mile mark to 4:24.7.

John Garrison of Hoover ran the season’s fastest 880, 1:56, and Tom Agsten was a double winner at :10.1 and :22.1 in the 100 and 220, offsetting a double by Crawford’s Bill Rainey, who won the 440 in :52.6 and pole vault at 12-6.

Hoover won the last-event, 880-yard relay in 1:30.3 and the meet, 56-48.

5/6/62

A consensus of coaches and some observers declared there was no over-the-limit wind in Vernus Ragsdale’s :09.6 100 in the Eastern League trials at Crawford, although a surprising 09.8 by San Diego’s Raymond Dixon in Class B was declared wind-aided.

5/11/62

Top mark of the Eastern’s evening finals was the league-record 1:54.4 880 by Hoover’s John Garrison. Only  Mission Bay’s Jim Cerveny (1:52.7) in 1957 had run faster.

Other league records were the :49.9 440 by St. Augustine’s James Moore and :21.7 220 by Lincoln’s Vernus Ragsdale, who also won the 100 in :09.7 and teamed with Ron Peavy, Robert Miller, and Larry Greenwood to set an 880-yard relay record of 1:28.2.

Escondido’s Jim Pritchard continued the ascension of pole vaulters, clearing 13-3 to set a Metropolitan League record in finals at Mar Vista.

Helix, undefeated in dual meet competition, came up short as Grossmont won the Grossmont League finals with 64 points to the Highlanders’ 43.

Steve Adams was a double winner in the Grossmont finals at El Cajon Valley, winning the 100 in :09.9 and 220 in :21.5.

5/18/62

Trees had been planted behind the south end of the track but had not matured to help shield the wind when the CIF finals were awarded to Kearny in 1961 and the result of races run away from the trees was predictable.

Only one flat race, Dave Blunt’s :21.0 220, was not wind aided.

Kearny was host again for the CIF finals and trials.

The wind was blowing 7-10 miles an hour and gusting higher on the first of the two-day trials.

Steve Adams took advantage with a :09.4 100 followed by the :09.5 of Point Loma’s Ray Alexander.

5/19/62

Eastern, Western, and Metropolitan League athletes gathered the following day and Lincoln’s Vernus Ragsdale, with wind, raced to a :09.6 100 and :20.7 220.

Perhaps most impressive achievement of the day was a 6-foot, 3 1/8-inch high jump by 5-foot, 8-inch Class C sophomore Eddy Hanks of Hoover, who would go on to set varsity records.

5/26/62

Vernus Ragsdale turned in more exciting but unrealistic times of :09.4 and :20.3 as the wind continued in the finals.

Cold and overcast weather prevailed as Lincoln won the team race with 39 points to Grossmont’s 32 (Foothillers also won Classes B and C) and San Diego’s 19.

Lincoln also served notice that it could be a contender for the team title in the following week’s state meet when it tied the County record with a 1:27.2 recording in the 880  relay and James Kennedy went 23-7 ¼ in the broad jump.

Grossmont’s Ed Speed beat his teammate and season-leading shot putter Brad Baer with a 58-11 ½ effort.  Baer had a gone 59-2 ¼.

Speed reached 61-6 ¼ the previous year but had been inconsistent through this spring.

6/1/62

Lincoln unofficially tied Los Angeles Jefferson for the team championship, each with 14 points at Modesto Junior College.

The Hornets roared into contention when James Kennedy beat a loaded field with a stunning, 24-foot, 5 ¾-inch broad jump early in the competition.

Lincoln had caught a break when films from the afternoon trials showed that Vernus Ragsdale had tied for a qualifying fourth in :09.7 in his heat of the 100.

It did not hurt that Ragsdale’s coach, Bobby Smith, had been an international pole vaulter from San Diego High and San Diego State in the late ‘forties and early ‘fifties and was a friend of Cornelius (Dutch) Warmerdam, the former world recordholder in the event and the state meet director.

Ragsdale was given the ninth lane, which was next to a barrier and screen separating spectators from the track. He unofficially finished third in :09.6 in the final, and was second to L.A. Fremont’s Richard Stebbins’ :20.9 in the 220 in :21.1. Ragsdale had blazed the straightaway in the trials in a 7.4 m.p.h. wind-aided :20.4.

EXCHANGE PROBLEM

Lincoln ran 1:27.1 in the 880 relay trials but slipped to fourth in 1:27.8 in the evening because of a poor exchange between Ragsdale and Larry Greenwood.

Hoover’s John Garrison and Monte Vista’s Lynn Chenowth were the only other San Diego Section point winners

Garrison tied Jim Cerveny’s County record with  a 1:52.7 and was second in the 880, won by Chico’s Doug Parker in 1:52.2. Chenowth tied for fourth in the pole vault at 13-6.

Helix’ Ted Hack was fifth in one of two mile races but eighth overall in 4:24.4 as junior Dennis Carr of La Habra Lowell set a national record of 4:08.7.  Carr’s best had been 4:18.8.

San Diego’s Elmer Logans ran a wind-aided :19.0 in the 180-yard low hurdles trials and was a non-scoring sixth with a no-wind :19.1 in the finals.

6/4/62

A review of film from the finals showed that Vernus Ragsdale was fifth, not third, in the 100, dropping the Hornets to 12 points and giving L.A. Jefferson the title.

“That’s news to me,” said Lincoln coach Bobby Smith when notified by The San Diego Union‘s Chuck Sawyer, who had read a wire-service announcement.

“I just took our trophy downtown to get it engraved,” said the disappointed Smith.

 

 

 

 

A couple newcomers led the shouting in a last hurrah for San Diego.

Area schools were preparing to leave the Southern Section after 47 years and embark on their own, 31 institutions forming the San Diego Section in the next school year.

Clairemont and El Capitan, numbers 30 and 31, ignored usually unsuccessful results for start-up programs.

Clairemont’s Chieftains, in their second year and without a senior class, with students and transfers from Kearny’s and Mission Bay’s enrollment districts, won the Western League track championship and bulldozed through four games in the baseball AA playoffs to another title.

El Capitan’s Vaqueros in Lakeside, sharing with another new school, Granite Hills, students from El Cajon Valley, won the Grossmont League baseball championship, finishing ahead of redoubtable Helix.

CAVERS MISS

San Diego High gained the Southern Section AAA finals in baseball, in which it had been dominant from the beginning of the CIF, but lost in its bid for a record 17^th championship when Whittier scored an 11-1 victory at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles.

Track http://1952-by-any-name-cavemen-cavers-hillers-broke-all-records/and field competition was as steady as usual, although the area was blanked in the state meet in Palo Alto.

Some 1960 highlights, baseball in regular typeface, track in italics:

2/20/60

Righthander John Lippert opened the season by pitching a no-hitter in Helix’ 1-0 victory over visiting Point Loma.

Ray Koenig’s seventh-inning home run provided the victory over the Pointers’ Ronnie Holmes, who allowed only two hits.

2/24/60

Fred Shuey hit a bases-loaded triple and Myron Morper drove in the winning run with a single in the bottom of the seventh inning as San Diego topped Point Loma, 5-4.

3/3/60

Lefthander Ronnie Holmes pitched a no-hitter and Point Loma gave the lefthander more offense than he needed in an 11-0 win over Coronado.

St. Augustine’s Dennis Shields pitched four innings of a 7-1 win over La Jolla and helped himself with three hits, two home runs and four runs batted in.

3/5/60

Darryl Nelson won three events, 120-yard high hurdles (:15.8), high jump (6-1 ½), and broad jump (20-11 ½) and would become a double or triple winner almost every week but Kearny dropped a 72-32 dual meet decision to Lincoln.

Dick Armstrong allowed three hits and drove in four runs as Hoover defeated visiting Alhambra Mark Keppel, 9-2.

Harold Peterson and Steve Simon hit home runs and San Diego erupted for six runs in the sixth inning to defeat guest San Gabriel, 14-9.

3/7/60

Dick Waisman of Mount Miguel and Dave Rebello of University pitched no-hitters and 10 losing teams in the County scored a total of 11 runs.

Waisman punched out Clairemont, 7-0.  Mountain Empire scored a run on a walk, two stolen bases, and an error but was beaten, 9-1.

3/14/60

Crawford’s Norm Marr tripled in a run in the sixth inning and drove in the winning run with a single in a 10-inning, 2-1 victory over Point Loma.

3/18/60

Point Loma’s Ron Steele was second in :49.5 in one of two, 440-yard dash heats in the 37^th Southern Counties’ Invitational at Huntington Beach. 

Steele’s time in the one-turn race, behind the :49.1 of Long Beach Poly’s Willie Martin, tied for the second fastest ever by an area runner.  San Diego’s Norman Stocks ran :49.3 in 1946 and Coronado’s John Fawcett :49.5 in 1937.
Lincoln’s Lafayette (Mackie) McIntosh was second in 1:58.3 in a large schools 880-yard run.  Point Loma’s Robert Nelson was third in the broad jump at 22-8 ¾.

Kearny’s Darryl Nelson tied for first in the small schools’ high jump at 6 feet, 3 ¼ inches and was second in the broad jump, won by Oceanside’s Rich Lazaro at 21-10 3/4.

3/25/60

A three-way tie in the pole vault was enough for Lincoln to score an upset, 53 2/3-50 1/3 victory over San Diego in the decisive Eastern League dual meet.

Lincoln trailed, 47 1/3-42 2/3, going into the final running event, the 880-yard relay.  Ed Goodman held off the Cavers’ Benny Lewis on the anchor lap for a 1:31.3 victory, but the pole vault had not been completed.

Jim Cransey and Adam Cato of Lincoln and San Diego’s Otis Doxey finally tied for first, each with the same number of misses, and the Hornets claimed 6 of the event’s nine points

Dave Morehead, who would pitch a no-hitter for the Boston Red Sox in 1965, was chased in a five-run San Diego first inning.

The Cavers went on to score two runs in the top of the seventh inning and defeat Hoover, 10-9, in a big Eastern League contest.

3/28/60

Gary (Slats) Maloy allowed five hits and went the distance in Crawford’s 7-6 victory over San Diego, which committed seven errors and fell into a first-place tie with Crawford, each at 3-1 in the East.

The loss was San Diego’s first in 10 games.

El Capitan improved to 9-0 by scoring a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to edge El Cajon Valley, 12-11.

The first-year Vaqueros were led by Danny Kern, who tripled and came home on an error for the winning run.  Kern added a single and double in four times at bat.

NO-HITTER BY CADETS

Jack Vincent and Ed Standon combined to no-hit San Miguel School in Army-Navy’s 14-0 win.

A 55-49 dual meet loss to Helix was San Diego’s third of the season, the most since the 1943 squad posted a 2-3 dual-meet record.

Helix’ Larry Aiken won both hurdles events and tied the 1957 school record of :20.0 by Gale Barsotti in the 180 lows.

4/2/60

San Diego outscored Grossmont, 50-44, with El Cajon Valley third at 38 points to win the large-school division of the sixth annual South Bay relays at Sweetwater.

Lincoln’s 53 points were enough to win the medium schools over Helix (51 1/3) and Point Loma (31 2/3). 

Mission Bay (61), Mar Vista (51), and Kearny (36) were the leading small schools.

Grossmont’s Don Clarke cleared 13-2 ½ in the pole vault, bettering by almost nine inches the record of 12-5 /12 by Escondido’s Bing Howe in 1959.

A San Diego team of Charles Dimry, Thomas Phillips, Emile Wright, and William Dentham raced the 440-yard relay in :42.7.

The Cavers’ time in the infrequently run event was the fastest in County history but was erased, along with other marks, after a survey of the Sweetwater track years later showed the oval was less than 440 yards.

4/8/60

Bill Jones cleared 6-3 ½ in the high jump to break Joe Page’s school record of 6-3, set in 1947, and Grossmont won the big meet in the foothills, 57 ½-46 ½ over Helix.

Don Hamlin :10.3, :22.2 in the 100 and 220-yard dashes, and Dennis Cradit, :51.6, 21-4 ½ in the 440 and broad jump, were double winners for the Foothillers.

Hamlin, Steve Adams, Dick Pray, and Cradit combined to run 1:32.1 to win the 880-yard relay. 

Grossmont improved to 6-0 and Helix slipped to 5-1.

4/11/60

Don Dart of Grossmont pitched a no-hitter in setting down Lincoln, 3-0, on the first day of the 10th annual Lions’ Tournament at Navy Field.

Hoover topped Escondido, 1-0, in eight innings and was the only city school of six to win an Unlimited Division game.

Kearny won its Limited Division opener, 8-3 over Coronado.

4/12/60

Tournament teams played doubleheaders on the second day of the three-day event.

Defending Unlimited Division champion San Diego shut out by El Cajon Valley, 2-0, on opening day, was bounced from the consolation bracket by St. Augustine, 3-2.

4/13/60

Sophomore George Sherrod cuffed Hoover on two hits and Helix won the Lions’ Unlimited Division title, 5-0.

El Centro Central beat Kearny, 7-2, for the Limited championship, while St. Augustine, 2-1 in eight innings over Escondido, and San Dieguito, 7-4 over Coronado, won the respective division consolation titles.

4/15/60

Competitors from San Diego to Yuma, Arizona, converged on Balboa Stadium for the first annual Easter Relays.

Mike Graves of El Cajon Valley cleared 13 feet, 6 ¼ inches in the pole vault for the day’s outstanding mark. 

Graves’ performance allowed the Braves to tie Grossmont at the three-man cumulative height of 37 feet and earn the schools the Dean C.E. Peterson perpetual trophy in honor of the late San Diego State coach.

4/20/60

Bill Froehling hurled a no-hitter as Army-Navy shut down visiting Mountain Empire, 9-0.

4/22/60

San Diego outlasted visiting Hoover, 13-12.  The Cardinals’ Dave Morehead pitched in the first inning, was removed and went to first base and then returned to pitch in the fourth inning.

4/26/60

Jim Thompson’s two-run home run was important in San Diego’s 8-7 win over Crawford, and moved the Cavers closer to the Eastern League title, its 7-1 record three games better than runner-up Hoover (4-4).

4/29/60

Favored Point Loma was shocked by first-year Clairemont, which won the 880-yard relay, the meet’s deciding event, and claimed the Western League dual meet championship, 53-51.
Lanky Jim Godfrey got up for second in the 100-yard dash, won the 220-yard dash in a County-leading :21.7, and anchored the Chiefs to a 1:31.2 victory in the battle of baton exchanges.

Clairemont’s surprising win was especially satisfying for coach Bob Kirchhoff, who had been out of the loop since being let go at Hoover after a stunning football loss to San Diego in 1954.

A City Schools administrator and parent of a Clairemont thinclad had asked the reluctant Kirchhoff to take the coaching reins as a personal favor.

Helix (9-3) walloped El Capitan (10-0), 14-6, in a Metropolitan League battle as Randy Schwartz and Ray Koenig hit home runs.

5/6/60

League finals were held at Camp Pendleton (Southern), El Cajon Valley (Metropolitan), La Jolla (Western), and Balboa Stadium (Eastern).

San Diego, despite losing leading 220-440-and-relay anchorman Benny Lewis to scholastic woes, dominated with 79 1/3 points to runner-up Lincoln’s 51. A Cavers foursome of Thomas Phillips, Emile Wright, Eddie Frost, and Bill Dentham timed 1:29.5 in the 880 relay.

Darryl Nelson set a Western League meet record of 6-3 ½ in the high jump but Clairemont won the team title with 54 5/6 points to Mission Bay’s 43 1/3.

Point Loma’s Ray Alexander ran faster than any city-wide Class C sprint ever with winning times of :10 in the 100 and :18.3 in the 180.

Grossmont, 8-0 in the dual meet season, with wins over Compton Centennial, Helix, and San Diego, outscored Helix, 41-38 for the varsity championship.

El Capitan improved to 12-2 in the Metro League with a 12-3 win over Escondido that included John  Udall’s eighth home run of the year and Al Hinkle’s 5-for-5, three doubles, a triple and single.

Point Loma clinched a tie for first for the Western League crown behind Jerry Jeli’s two-hit pitching and 6-0 win over La Jolla.

5/14/60

Athletes from the Eastern, Western, Metropolitan, Avocado, and Southern leagues met those from the Orange County Sunset, Freeway, and Orange leagues in a Southern California divisional meet in Balboa Stadium.

El Cajon Valley’s Mike Graves, the Southern California pole vault leader at 13-8 ½, dropped down to Class B and cleared the same height, breaking the record of 13-6 ¼ by a Glendale vaulter in 1957.

San Diego led with 7 varsity qualifiers.  Fullerton and Tustin had five each.

5/17/60

Clairemont, runner-up to Point Loma in the Western loop, topped Vista, 6-0, in a first-round, Southern Section AA playoff as Ron Power tripled and hit a two-run homer.

5/20/60

Dave Morehead shut out El Capitan, 9-0, in a surprising Southern Section AAA playoff result.  The Cardinals, in and out all season, rolled with Morehead’s three-hit pitching and stunned the first-year Vaqueros, who were 14-2 in the Metropolitan League.

San Diego outlasted Helix, 10-8, as Steve Simon was 3 for 4 and pitcher Larry Murillo 2 for 3.

Clairemont advanced with an 18-5 win over Torrance Bishop Montgomery in Class AA.

Riverside Ramona ousted the Southern League’s Ramona, 11-8, in Class A.

5/21/60

San Diego qualified five entries in the semifinal divisional meet at Chaffey high in Ontario, led by its relay team, which clocked a season-best 1:28.9.

Kearny’s Darryl Nelson led all high jumpers at 6-4 and San Diego’s Thomas Phillips won a 100-yard dah heat in :10 and was second in his 220 heat.

5/24/60

Clairemont earned a trip to the Southern Section AA finals with a 6-3 victory over Santa Ana Mater Dei at Anaheim.

Bill Black’s three-run homer in the fourth inning broke a 2-2 tie in the Chieftains victory.

San Diego advanced to the AAA quarterfinals with a 6-1 win at Compton as lefthander Larry Murillo and last-inning reliefer Frank Lopez set down the Tarbabes on 3 hits.

About 30 professional scouts descended on San Diego State to watch future major league pitchers Dave Morehead of Hoover and Tommy Sisk of Long Beach Poly.

Sisk and the Jackrabbits turned back the Cardinals, 3-1, on Brian McCall’s two-run home run in the fifth inning.

5/27/60

Clairemont, coached by Ernie Beck,  struck with five runs in the first inning as Mike Smith and Jay Critchley hit back-to-back home runs and lefthander Jerry Haight limited Rosemead Bosco Tech to four hits for six innings in a 9-2 win and surprising Southern Section championship.

San Diego High advanced again behind the two-hit pitching of Larry Murillo and surprised the favored and host Fullerton Indians, 11-2, in the semifinals round.

Murillo allowed two hits and first baseman Jim Thompson drove in four runs with a single, double, and triple.

5/28/60

Thomas Phillips of San Diego ran the 100 in :09.9 for third and Darryl Nelson of Kearny was third with a 6-4 1/2 high jump in the Southern Section finals at Long Beach Veterans’ Stadium.

Phillips and Nelson each qualified for the state meet at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto. 

El Capitan’s Les Cites was fourth in the shot put at 58-2 ¼.

More impressive were some lower division competitors.

Vernie King of San Diego set a Class B broad jump record of 23-10 ¾ and won the 120-yard low hurdles in :12.8. El Cajon Valley’s Mike Graves cleared 14 feet in the pole vault, bettering his record of 13-8 ½, set two weeks before.

Lincoln’s Class B 660-yard relay team of James (Preacher) Johnson, Walter Scott, Ed Goodman and Vernus Ragsdale, won in 1:07.9, off their best of 1:06.3 but also qualifying the group to run in an exhibition 660 at Palo Alto.

Ray DeBolt represented a third new County high school, Granite Hills, located about a mile east of El Cajon Valley, and won the B 660-yard run in 1:23.6.

6/4/60

Lincoln’s B 660-yard speedsters bettered the national high school record of 1:05.9, running 1:05.7 but Los Angeles Freemont won the exhibition race in 1:04.9.

Thomas Phillips of San Diego and Darryl Nelson of Kearny did not place in the 100 or high jump. 

Larry Murillo’s bid for a fourth straight playoff pitching victory and San Diego High’s attempt to win its 17^th championship since 1917 came up short.

Whittier took a 5-0 lead after two innings and cruised to an 11-1 triumph at Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field.

The Cavers, under first-year coach Jerry Dahms, posted an overall record of 23-4 and came much further than expected to this, the last competition of San Diego County teams in the Southern Section.

 

Grossmont was the  champion in baseball.  San Diego High was the champion in track and field…for three days.

San Diego lost a title after a review of film from the 440-yard race in the Southern Section finals revealed that Hal Espy had finished fifth and not fourth, taking away a point from the Cavemen and awarding the team championship to Glendale Hoover, Glendale, and Compton.

The winners tied with 15 points each, edging the stunned Cavers, who had 14 ½.

BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Grossmont, picked below San Diego and La Jolla in early-season City Prep League forecasts and a non-factor in previous races in the Coast League, rode the strong arms of its pitching staff, headed by left-hander Ray Preston, to win the Southern Section title.

Splitting the sports with regular and italics typefaces:

3/5/51

Clyde Wetter, his eye on Hal Norris’ 1950 school record of 58-2 1/2, took the Southern California lead in the 12-pound shot when he reached 56 feet, 4 ¾ inches, in a 66-38, dual meet win over visiting Sweetwater.

3/8/51

San Diego and La Jolla tied for first in the City Prep League Relays in Balboa Stadium, each with 51 ½ points, followed by Grossmont with 45.

All marks were combined. Distances were cumulative.  Teams could enter three in each event and their performances were combined.

An individual record was set when San Diego’s Hal Espy ran the 100-yard dash in :10.0.

3/9/51

San Diego Lions Club announced it was sponsoring a three-day, first annual baseball tournament of sixteen teams, including outside teams Anaheim, Brawley, El Monte, and Norwalk Excelsior.

San Diego and La Jolla were seeded No. 1 and No. 2, followed by Excelsior and El Monte.

Metropolitan League boss Joe Rindone, principal at Chula Vista, announced a double-round robin baseball schedule, highlighted by the annual carnival April 27 at Lane Field. 

John Green was named coach at Sweetwater, replacing Bruce Clarke, called to active duty by the Marine Corps in response to the war in Korea.

Other new Metro coaches included Bob Ganger at Mar Vista and John MacDonald at Oceanside.  Bill Duncan returned at Escondido and Chet DeVore at Chula Vista.  Coronado did not field a team.

3/11/51

Coronado was awaiting the results of its “telegraphic” track meet with Balboa High of the Panama Canal Zone.

3/14/51

Clyde Wetter took the national lead in the shot put at 58 feet, 3/8 inches, as Grossmont outscored Kearny, 73-31.

“A shot putter relies on the wrist snap for great power and distance,” the 5-foot, 8-inch, 180-pound Wetter told Gene Earl of The San Diego Union, “but strong fingers are just as important, to keep the ball from slipping while being released.”

Wetter revealed that part of his exercise regimen is standing several feet from a wall and falling against it with all fingers extended and kept straight to prevent flex.

–San Diego won an early City League dual-meet showdown against La Jolla, 61 2/3-42 1/3.

The Vikings’ Joe Epps and San Diego’s Hal Espy were double winners in the 120-yard high hurdles and 180 low hurdles and 100 and 440-yard races, respectively.

Espy also anchored the Cavers to a 1:32.4 victory in the 880-yard relay and Frank Johnson won the broad jump at 22-6.

–Lincoln Lucero set a Point Loma record of :20.3 in the 180 lows, but Hoover won, 53 1/3-50 2/3.

3/16/51

San Diego and La Jolla made the Lions seeding committee look good by reaching the championship game, the Cavers 22-1 over Oceanside and 6-3 over El Monte. 

La Jolla advanced, 5-4 over Escondido and 3-2 over Grossmont.

Doug Hubacek’s 3-run homer in the last of the seventh inning ousted El Monte and Tom Tomaiko scored on Bill Whitson’s single in the 10^th inning to top Grossmont.

3/17/51

San Diego outscored Long Beach Poly, 32 4/15 to 29, to win the large-school team championship for the third consecutive year in the 30^th Southern Counties’ Invitational at Huntington Beach.

Newport Harbor won the small schools division with 30 points, followed by Covina (24) and Kearny (21 3/5).

Several running events in the crowded field included two heats.

–Walter (Red) Taylor won his heat in the 100 in :10.2, followed by Hal Espy, who also anchored the San Diego 880-yard relay squad to victory in one of three races.

–Clyde Wetter broke Hal Norris’ meet record (56-3/4) with a 57-9 ¾ effort, almost 7 feet further than Ontario Chaffey’s Don Vick, who would set a national record in 1953.

–John Rushing of Kearny won the 180 lows in :19.7 and La Jolla’s Joe Epps took a heat in the 440 in :52.

–Don Hydrick of Chula won a division of the pole vault at 12-3.

La Jolla’s Bill Whitson was tournament most-valuable player as the Vikings defeated San Diego, 5-3, for the Lions title at Lane Field.

Whitson struck out 10, walked one, allowed five hits, and profited from three double plays.

Kearny won the consolation bracket, 19-0, over St. Augustine in the morning championship at San Diego High.

3/18/51

Because of a San Diego City League ruling that no school could compete or practice during the Easter week, there would be no teams in the upcoming, Pomona 20-30 Club tournament, which San Diego High had won 7 times in the event’s 16-season- history. 

Escondido would be the County’s lone representative.

3/28/51

Oceanside won seven of 12 events and Bob Penrod took the 100 in :10.1 and set a school record of :22 seconds in the 220, but Chula Vista claimed the Metropolitan League dual, 55-49.

3/30/51

John Rushing of Kearny ignored blustery weather and won three events and anchored the relay team to victory in the meet’s final event as the Komets edged Point Loma, 54-49.

The 1:35.4 victory in the two-lap exchange of batons broke a 49-49 tie.  Rushing also won the 100 in :10.4, 180 lows in :20.6, and broad Jump at 21-2 ½.

Bill Whitson struck out 16 and didn’t allow a hit and La Jolla won its CPL opener, 11-0, over Point Loma.

Pointers base runners were by a walk and two errors.

–Charlie Powell hit a 400-foot home run and Eddie Boyle doubled in two runs in the sixth inning as San Diego topped Kearny, 5-4. 

San Diego sophomore Bob Borovicka came on in the sixth and struck out 10 of the 15 batters he faced, allowed three hits and two walks, and tagged out a Kearny runner at the plate for the final out of the game.

4/3/51

Kearny beat La Jolla, 5-4, but the Vikings’ Bill Whitson, in a three-inning relief appearance, faced the minimum 9 batters and struck out 5. 

–Grossmont outscored San Diego, 7-2, in what was inaccurately described as an upset.

Grossmont coach John Hancock’s signature pitcher, Ray Preston, set down the Hillers on seven hits and drove in a run with a third-inning single.

–San Diego’s junior varsity defeated Grossmont’s JV, 22-0.

4/12/51

Grossmont (4-0) was pulling away in the CPL baseball race, routing challenger Kearny (2-2), 14-4. 

Ray Preston, the Foothillers’ pitching ace, moved over to first base and collected four hits, including two home runs, a double and single.

4/14/51

Grossmont walloped La Jolla, 11-0, as Ray Preston struck out 18 and allowed two singles to Vikings shortstop Art Luppino.

The Foothillers finished the first half of the CPL race with a 5-0 record. San Diego was 4-1 and Lions tournament champion La Jolla was 1-4.

–La Jolla’s Joe Epps and Bill Lawrence posted CPL season highs in the Vikings’ 67-37 win over Point Loma.  Epps cleared the 120 high hurdles in :15.0 and Lawrence traversed the mile in 4:46.6.

–John Parker led the way with a 22-6 broad jump and San Diego teammates Alex Hudson and Frank Johnson also spanned at least 22 feet in an 87-16 win over Kearny.

–Kearny high jumper Danny Bain became the first in the City League to clear 6 feet.

4/20/51

Sweetwater claimed the Metropolitan League dual meet championship, 66 ½-37 ½, at Chula Vista.

The Red Devils won 9 of 11 events and John Palhegyi tied a school record of :22.2 in the 220 on the Chula Vista straightaway.

–No score was reported, only that San Diego topped Point Loma for a 5-0 dual meet record.

–Coach Bill Patten’s Cavers had won 22 consecutive dual meets, dating to a 57-47 loss to Grossmont in the opening dual of the 1948 season.

4/20/51

Art Webber of La Jolla no-hit Point Loma, 6-2, overcoming seven bases on balls and four Vikings errors.

4/24/51

Grossmont closed in on the CPL baseball title, 5-0, at San Diego.  The Foothillers were 7-0, Cavemen 5-2.

4/27/51

San Diego, as expected, cruised to the City Prep League team championship with 73 ½ points, followed by Grossmont (34 3/4) and La Jolla (33 ½) before about 1,000 persons in Balboa Stadium.

–Joe Epps of La Jolla was a double winner in the high hurdles (:15.3) and 440 (:52).

–San Diego finished 1-2-3 in the broad jump, led by Alex Hudson’s 21-10 ½.

–Clyde Wetter won the shot put at 57- ¾, but had some competition from San Diego’s dual-sport star Charlie Powell, second at 55-11 ¾, which was better than the 1948 school record of 55-2 1/4 by Bob Van Doren.

–Bernie Nelson, a Class B performer at Hoover, took the area lead in the high jump when he cleared 6-1 13/16.

A crowd of 2,000 attended the Metro League carnival at Lane Field and saw San Dieguito, Oceanside, and Sweetwater emerge as winners.  . 

–Teams played three innings each.  Mar Vista, Escondido, and Chula Vista were losers.

–Sweetwater’s Dick Walker pitched two hitless innings, and struck out five as the Red Devils beat Chula Vista, 1-0 in the final three innings.

–San Dieguito, borrowed from the Southern Prep League, was a 4-0 winner over Mar Vista and Oceanside beat Escondido, 4-3

4/28/51

Postponed twice, the Metropolitan loop trials at Chula Vista were dominated by Sweetwater with 17 qualifiers, followed by Escondido, 12, and Chula Vista, 9.

–The weather again was cold and blustery but did not hinder Mar Vista hurdler John Poole, who ran :15.3 in the 120 highs.  Dave Binney of Chula Vista recorded a 4:45.6 mile.

4/30/51

San Dieguito ran away with the Southern Prep League title with 103 ½ points, but Bob Knapp of Army-Navy set the only meet record with a 49-foot shot put.

5/1/51

Sweetwater won five events and scored 56 ½ points to win the Metropolitan championship.  Chula Vista was second with 31 ½, followed by Escondido, 29.

Sweetwater’s Jim Seebold won the 440 in :53.4 and was second in the 100.  Teammate Ted Granger was first in the 180 low hurdles (:21) and second to Mar Vista’s John Poole, who won the high hurdles in :15.3.

Oceanside’s Bob Penrod doubled in the sprints with a :10.4 100 and :22.4 220.

No meet records were broken but Sweetwater set a school record with its 1:34.4 victory in the 880 relay and Chula Vista’s Don Hydrick cleared 12-5 1/8 in the pole vault.

5/4/51

Ray Preston pitched a 3-1 victory over La Jolla as Grossmont (8-0) clinched the CPL title..

San Diego dropped a 10-inning, 4-3 decision to Hoover on Dick Pomeroy’s single after the Hillers’ Carl Lutz tied the score in the ninth with a two-run home run.

5/5/51

John Parker broad jumped 23-9½ to take the state lead and break Bob Logan’s 1938 school record of 23-6 3/4 as San Diego High led with 11 qualifiers at the Huntington Beach divisional meet.

Three-hundred athletes competed from San Diego’s three leagues, City, Metro, and Southern Prep, along with qualifiers from the Orange and Sunset circuits.

Hal Espy doubled with wins in the 100 (:10) and 440 (:51.9).  Haldon Grey and Walter Taylor were disqualified for false starts in the 100 and the relay team was bumped for a lane violation. Grey recovered to win his heat in :22 in the 220.

–Oceanside’s Bob Penrod won a 220 heat in:22.1 and John Rushing of Kearny doubled in the Class B hurdles with times of :09.1 in the 70-yard highs and :13.1 in 120 lows.

–Forty-eight of the 108 San Diego County entries from league finals qualified to move on to the divisional semifinals at Ontario Chaffey.

5/8/51

Ray Preston struck out 19 batters and didn’t allow a hit in a 21-0 rout of Point Loma.  The Foothillers were 9-1 in league play, San Diego 7-3.

–This was the 35^th and final season the Cavers played home games in Balboa Stadium. They would move to the upper practice field north of the Stadium in 1952.

–Chula Vista shut out Sweetwater, 8-0, as Chuck Phinney pitched a no-hitter.  Escondido claimed the Metro championship with a 5-2 record.

5/12/51

Twenty-two athletes from San Diego’s 3 leagues qualified in semifinals at Chaffey.

San Diego led with six advancers in three events.  Hal Espy won his heat in the 440 in :50.4, off the school record of :49.3 by Norman Stocks in 1946 but unofficially the fifth fastest in area history.

More significant was Clyde Wetter’s losing his first competition of the season, beaten by the Cavers’ Charlie Powell, who had turned in his baseball uniform only four days earlier.

Powell’s winning toss was 56-3 to Wetter’s 56 feet.

5/19/51

San Diego thought it had won the team championship with 15 ½ points.  Glendale Hoover, Glendale, and Compton had 15 each.

The Cavers scored their points early and held on.

John Parker won the  broad jump at 23-3, followed by Compton’s Rollin Garrison, 23-2 ¼, and Parker’s teammates, Frank Johnson, third at 22-1 ¾ and Alex Hudson, tied for fourth at 22-1. When Espy was awarded fourth in the 440 more than half the meet remained.

–Wetter won the shot put with a school-record 58-4 7/8 and Powell was runner-up with 57-9 ¼.

–Others included Joe Epps of La Jolla, fourth in the 120 high hurdles; Bob Penrod of Oceanside 4^th in the 220, and Don Hydrick, Chula Vista, tied for fifth in the pole vault vault at 12 feet.

–Kearny’s John Rushing tied the Class B record of :08.9 in the 70 hurdles and won the 120 lows in :13.2.

Grossmont opened the Southern Section playoffs with a 5-2 win at Santa Ana.  Ray Preston stopped the Saints on 3 hits and 14 strikeouts to improve his record to 8-0.  Preston also singled, doubled twice, and hit a home run.

5/23/51

Grossmont won its semifinal playoff versus visiting El Monte, 9-4, as Preston allowed five hits and struck out seven and his battery mate, Bob Rand, and Bill Harris homered.

5/25/51

Escondido, having beaten Wildomar Elsinore and Holtville, was three outs away from the Southern Section minor division crown, leading 6-4, but bowed to Bonita, 7-6, at Fullerton.

5/26/51

Clyde Wetter was second to Leon Patterson of Taft with a best of 57-8 ½ to Patterson’s 59-2 ½ in the state meet in Berkeley.  Charlie Powell was fourth in the shot put at 54-7 ½ and John Parker fifth in the broad jump at 21-4 1/4.

5/26/51

Ray Preston (10-0) struck out 16 and allowed 2 hits as Grossmont won the Southern Section major division, 5-0, over Compton, before about 1,000 persons at Lane Field. 

Preston, finishing his season with a 10-0 record, beat future major leaguer Benny Daniels, who struck out eight and walked eight.

The Foothillers’ Bill Harris, 2 for 3, and sophomore Ernie Merk, 2 for 4, backed Preston.

STRIKES AND SPIKES

San Diego sprinter Hal Espy entered the Air Force after graduation and then enrolled at Idaho State, where he became a national collegiate boxing champion…Point Loma’s coach was Bennie Edens, later one of the County’s all-time winningest football mentors…Metropolitan League principals, at a meeting at Coronado, announced that ticket prices for football and basketball in the 1951-52 school year, would be increased to 80 cents for adults, while students still would pay 30 cents…Jim Hunt was an all-around contributor at Hoover, scoring in the high jump, 880-yard run, and hurdles…his son, Thom, was one of the nation’s top milers a generation later at Patrick Henry…shot putter Clyde Wetter was one of five brothers and two sisters of a La Mesa family whose father was a grocery store butcher…Ray Preston and Bob Rand were all-Southern California first-team selections….

They didn’t necessarily post the all-time San Diego County best in their event, or even their best, but 62 individuals have won 80 state track championships since the first meet in 1915.

Pole Vaulter Bill Miller of San Diego, jumper Dokie Wiliams of El Camino, and weight specialist Darius Savage of Morse stand out as triple winners.

Miller took his titles in 1927, ’28, and ’29. Williams won the triple jump in 1977 and ’78 and the long jump in 1978. Savage won the shot put in 2006 and the discus in 2005 and ’06.

There have been numerous double winners, the most recent being Madison’s Kenon Christon, who won both sprints in 2019.

A father-son combination was Clairemont’s Dale Fleet, who won the two-mile in 1972. Mac of University City won the mile in 2009.

There has been one brother-sister combination. Kristin Fahy of La Costa Canyon won the 3200-meter run in 2019.  Darren Fahy took the 1600 meters in 2012.

Champions:

EVENT	YEAR	NAME	SCHOOL	MARK
100 yards	1929	Jimmy Willson	San Diego	:09.8
	1973	Elijah Jefferson	Crawford	:09.6w
	1974	Jefferson		:09.8
	1977	David Russell	Parrick Henry	:09.61
100 meters	1992	Riley Washington	Southwest	:10.30
	2019	Kenon Christon	Madison	:10.30
220 yards	1929	Willson		:21.4
	1941	Glenn Willis	San Diego	:21.7
	1977	Russell		:20.97w
200 meters	2019	Christon		:20.69
440 yards	1929	Irvine (Cotton) Warburton	San Diego	:49.6
	1946	Norman Stocks	San Diego	:49.3
	1979	Tony Banks	Morse	:47.28
880 yards	1957	Jim Cerveny	Mission Bay	1:52.7
	1964	Bob Hose	Madison	1:51.7
	1966	Terry Rogers	Hilltop	1:51.5
800 meters	1988	Mark Senior	Mount Miguel	1:51.37
	2008	Charles Jock	Mission Bay	1:51.64
	2012	Alexander Monsivaiz	Army-Navy	1:51.34
One Mile	1965	Tim Danielson	Chula Vista	4:08
	1966	Danielson		4:07
1600 meters	1989	Francis O’Neil	San Pasqual	4:08.67
	1991	Daniel DasNeves	Helix	4:12.22
	1992	DasNeves		4:09.54
	1994	Meb Keflezghi	San Diego	4:07.67
	1999	Marcus Chandler	Serra	4:10.44
	2000	Evan Fox	West Hills	4:09.44
	2006	A.J. Acosta	El Camino	4:04.95
	2009	Mac Fleet	University City	4:05.33
	2012	Darren Fahy	La Costa Canyon	4:08.78
Two Miles	1972	Dale Fleet	Clairemont	8:53.8
3200 meters	1994	Keflezghi		8:58.11
	2007	Eric Avila	Bonita Vista	9:01.77
120-yard high hurdles 42-inch	1938	Johnny Biwener	San Diego	:15.3
110-meter high hurdles 39-inch	NA
300 intermediate hurdles	2001	Jeff Hunter	Granite Hills	:36.25
4×100-meter relay	1994		El Camino	:41.16
	2001		Helix	:41.17
880-yard relay	1941	Ed Pohl, Don Smalley, Lou Barrera, Glenn Willis	San Diego	1:29
	1946	Jim Barrera, Harold Miller, John Holloway, Norman Stocks	San Diego	1:29.2
	1963	Walter Blackledge, Gordon Baker, Ray Dixon, Charles Sanford	San Diego	1:26.3
4×400-meter relay	NA
High Jump	1918	Brick Muller	San Diego	5-9 3/4
	1953	Bernie Nelson	Hoover	6-4
	1970	Jerry Culp	Oceanside	7-0 1/4
Long Jump	1957	Luther Hayes	Lincoln	23-8 1/2
	1962	James Kennedy	Lincoln	24-5 3/4
	1966	Doyle Steel	San Diego	25-3 1/4
	1978	Dokie Wiliams	El Camino	25-1 1/4
	1990	Jerome Price	University City	25-3 1/4
	2003	Darrell Hutsona	Helix	25-5 3/4
Triple Jump	1973	Willie Banks	Oceanside	49-7 3/4
	1974	Banks		50-9
	1977	Williams		51-0 1/2
	1978	Williams		50-4 1/4
	1989	Lenny McGill	Orange Glen	51-1 /14
	1994	Von Ware	Rancho Buena Vista	50-6
Shot Put	1950	Hal Norris	Grossmont	56-5 1/2
	1968	Pete Shmock	San Dieguito	63-11
	1986	Brian Boggess	El Capitan	61-4
	1989	Brent Noon	Fallbrook	66-1 1/2
	1990	Noon		74-4 3/4
	2003	Jared Bray	Mission Bay	63-3 1/4
	2006	Darius Savage	Morse	66-3 1/4
	2014	Dotun Ogundeji	Madison	65-5 1/2
Discus, 4 lb., 6.4 oz.	1925	Eddie Moeller	San Diego	126-6 5/8
	1926	Moeller		141
Discus, 3 lb., 9 oz.	1999	Dan Ames	El Capitan	199-9
	2004	Daniel Schaerer	The Bishop’s	206-5
	2005	Savage		194-8
	2006	Savage		205-6
	2013	Brenden Song	West Hills	188-8
	2015	Charles Lenford	Oceanside	195-4
Pole Vault	1922	Harry Smith	San Diego	11-11 1/2
	1923	Smith		12-3 5/8
	1926	Bill Hubbard	San Diego	12-4 tie
	1927	Bill Miller	San Diego	12
	1928	Miller		12-9 1/2
	1929	Miller		12-6
	1956	Bill Logan	El Cajon Valley	13-6 tie
	1961	Mike Graves	El Cajon Valley	14-3
	1995	Mike Brown	Torrey Pines	16-4

It’s the time of year that University City’s Katrina Wright, Poway’s Ashley Callahan, and  members of Scripps Ranch’s 4×100 relay squad should be preparing to defend their San Diego Section championships Saturday and move on to the 102^nd state track meet at Clovis next week.

Like the prom and traditional graduation, they sadly won’t have the opportunity, but their achievements in 2019 now are part of our area’s rich history in the sport. They can look back and say, “I was a state champ.”

There have been 28 individual champions and 46 total, beginning with the sprint double by La Jolla’s Janice Wiser in the first girls’ state meet in 1974.

Monique Henderson of Morse won five individual titles, four in the 400 meters and one in the 200 meters.  Henderson and only 11 others in state history have 5 gold medals.

Sweetwater’s Gail Devers and Vista’s Kira Jorgensen each won three championships.

Devers later was a twice Olympic champion in the 100-meter dash and a gold medalist on a 4×100 relay team.  Henderson was on the winning U.S. 4×400 relay squad in 2004.

Jorgensen topped the field in 1600-meter races in 1987, ’88, and ’89.  Devers won the long jump in 1983 and doubled in the 100 meters  and 100-meter 30-inch hurdles in 1984,

The 100 hurdles 33-inch and the 4×400 relay are events in which there has not been a first-place finisher from the San Diego Section.

Champions:

EVENT	YEAR	NAME	SCHOOL	MARK
100 yards	1974	Janice Wiser	La Jolla	:10.8
100 meters	1984	Gail Devers	Sweetwater	:11.51
220 yards	1974	Janice Wiser	La Jolla	:24.2
200 meters	2000	Monique Henderson	Morse	:23.19
400 meters	1998	Henderson		:53.41
	1999	Henderson		:52.87
	2000	Henderson		:50.74
	2001	Henderson		:51.34
	2019	Katrina Wright	University City	:53.93
800 meters	1986	Laura Chapel	University City	2:08.07
1600 meters	1986	Darcy Arreola	Grossmont	4:45.13
	1987	Kira Jorgensen	Vista	4:45.98
	1988	Jorgensen		4:49.54
	1989	Jorgensen		4:49.55
	1993	Milena Glusac	Fallbrook	4:50.83
	2009	Sammy Silva	Our Lady of Peace	4:47.67
3200 meters	1992	Glusac		10:28.62
	1993	Glusac		10:42.68
	2003	Claire Rethmeier	San Pasqual	10:27.32
	2010	Molly Grabill	Rancho Bernardo	10:20.25
	2019	Kristin Fahy	La Costa Canyon	10:11.38
100-meter hurdles 30”	1984	Devers		:13.41
100-meter hurdles 33”	NA
300-meter hurdles	1991	Erin Blunt	San Pasqual	:43.02
	2014	Hannah Labrie-Smith	Cathedral	:41.67
4×100 yards relay	1977	Jewell Lovelady, Danita Young, Katie Gaston, Judy Reed	Crawford	:46.14
4×100 meters relay	2019	Brianna Sproles, Aubree Bell, Jaymie Rustkovich, Aaliyah McCormick	Scripps Ranch	:46.51
4×400 meters relay	NA
High Jump	1978	Sue McNeal	Carlsbad	5-10 1/4
	1987	Lynn Patrick	Serra	5-10
	2007	Whitney Sisler	La Costa Canyon	5-10
	2019	Alysha Hickey	Coronado	5-8
Long Jump	1981	Chris Mose	El Cajon Valley	18-10 1/4
	1983	Devers		19-6
	2018	Hickey		19-9 3/4
Triple Jump	1994	Tamieka Porter	Orange Glen	38-11
	1997	Andria Booker	El Camino	40
	1998	Booker		40-0 1/4
Shot Put	1974	Kathy Devine	Mission Bay	47-4 1/2
	1975	Devine		42-3 3/4
Discus	1976	Kathy Middleton	Poway	134-5
	1986	Tracy Crawford	Southwest	156-02
Pole Vault	1998	Tracy O’Hara	Rancho Bernardo	12-8
	1999	Kathleen Donoghue	Rancho Bernardo	12-8 1/4
	2008	Emily Mattoon	Rancho Bernardo	12-6
	2009	Kortney Ross	Westview	13-4
	2010	Ross		13-6
	2019	Ashley Callahan	Rancho Bernardo	13-4

 

It was perhaps the finest track-and-field season in San Diego Section history.

There not only were a record seven gold medal winners (compared to five in 1974) in last week’s state championships in Clovis but area thinclads also had state best performances in five boys and girls events.

Kenon Christon was No. 1, not only in medals but in the 100 and 200-meter races, with best times of :10.30 and :20.55.  The Madison senior also was second with a 24-foot long jump.

Coronado’s Alysha Hickey was the leading high jumper with a clearance of 5 feet, 10 1/2 inches and long jumped 20 feet, 9 inches, although that mark was achieved with wind assistance over the allowable 2.0 meters.

University City’s Katriina Wright had the best 400 time, :53.93, and La Costa Canyon’s Kristin Fahy led all 3,200-meter runners at 10:11.38.

Seventeen San Diego athletes’ best marks were achieved in the state meet and are noted below in bold talics.  Marks in parenthesis show where locals stand in the state’s top 25 in each event.

BOYS

EVENT	NAME	MARK	STATE	MARK	U.S.
100	Christon, Madison	:10.30 (1) :10.26w	Grubb, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame	:10.40	:10.13 :09.98w Boling, Strake Jesuit, Houston
	Steward, Orange Glen	:10.54 (6T)
200	Christon, Madison	:20.55 (1)	Grubb, Notre Dame Sherman Oaks	:20.93	:20.58, Boling. Miller, Bishop Dunne, Dallas, :20.52w
	Steward, Orange Glen	:21.45 (19T)
400	Parker, Helix	:47.91 (12)	Larrier, Elk Grove Monterey Trail	:46.49	:46.22, Robinson, Hazlewood West, Missouri
	Salzman, Calvin Christian	:48.25 (15)
	Lippert, La Costa Canyon	:48.31 (19)
800	Tellez-Velasquez, San Pasqual	1:52.52 (6)	Wingo, Valencia	1:51.71	1:50.24, Woods, E.C. Glass, Lynchburg, Va.
	Ali, Crawford	1:54.17 (25)
1600	G. Stanford, La Costa Canyon	4:12.92 (14)	Hibbert, El Monte Arroyo	4:07.25	4:05.28. Atwood, Central Valley, Veradale, Washington
	Ali, Crawford	4:13.00 (15)
	J. Stanford, La Costa Canyon	4:13.12 (16)
	Niednagel, La Costa Canyon	4:13.81 (21)
3200	Niednagel,  La Costa Canyon	9:01.76 (5)	Young, Newbury Park	8:40.0	Young
	Velasco, Mission Hills	9:07.27 (14)
110 High Hurdles	Sayles, Steele Canyon	:14.47w (17) :14.63	:13.31w :13.50	13:31w	Marshall
300 Intermediate Hurdles	Solomon, Grossmont	:37.88 (12)	Roberson, Upland	:36.32	:36.12, Matthews, Central, Pickering, Ohio
4×100 Relay	Madison	:41.88 (14)	Long Beach Poly	:40.87	:40.08, Fort Bend Marshall, Missouri City, Texas
4×400 Relay	Grossmont	3:19.19	Placentia Valencia	3:13.73	3:10.56, Strake Jesuit, Houston
High Jump	Brownell, San Dieguito	6-8 (9T)	Allen, Santa Barbara San Marcos	7-0	7-1 ¾, Marseille, Cardinal Gibbons, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
	Lugo, Canyon Crest	6-6 ½  (21)
Long Jump	Christon, Madison	24-0	Foster Clovis North	25-1 ½	26-6, Martin, Saginaw, Michigan
	Mitchell, Point Loma	23-5 (13T)
	Harris-Williams, Granite Hills	23 1 ½ (21T)
Triple Jump	Mitchell, Point Loma	48-6 (3)	Foster, Clovis North	49-9 1/2	51-10 1/2 Foote-Talley, Northwest, Germantown, Maryland
	Gibbs, Oceanside	47-4 ¾ (12)
	Cynkin, Torrey Pines	46-5 ¼ (20)
	Harris-Williams, Granite Hills	46-4 ¼ (21)
Shot Put	Boamah, Scripps Ranch	54-0	Viveros, Bakersfield, Liberty	71-3	71-3, Viveros
Discus	Boamah, Scripps Ranch	162-1	Elbettar, Newport Beach Newport Harbor	197-4	209-6 1/4 Lemmon, Fort Myers, Florida
Pole Vault	Rice, Rancho Bernardo	16-5 (2)	Wright, Lodi	16-8	17-6, Stone, Lawrence North, Indianapolis, Indiana
	Volpe, San Marcos	15-9 (10T)
	Clarke, El Camino	15-3 (18T)
	Elamparo, Rancho Bernardo	15-3 (18T)
	Jurisoo, Mt. Carmel	15-3 (18T)

GIRLS

EVENT	NAME	MARK	STATE	MARK	U.S.
100	Shaheed, Madison	:11.57w (3) :11.71	Nowling, Calabasas	:11.40w	:11.27, Davis, Oak Hall, Gainesville, Florida
	Rustkovich, Scripps Ranch	:11.87w (14T)
	Hickey, Coronado	:11.92 (25)
200	Shaheed, Madison	:24.16 (6)	Nowling	:23.64	:23.06, Davis
	Rustkovich, Scripps Ranch	:24.30 (13T)
	Wright, University City	:24.44 (18)
400	Wright, University City	:53.93 (1)	Monrroy, L.B. Millikan	:54.16	:52.06, Wilson, Godwin, Richmond, Virginia
	Cramer, The Bishop’s	:55.50 (19)
800	Riedman, La Costa Canyon	2:11.37 (10)	Wallenstrom, Kentfield, Marin Catholic	2:08.78	2:06.1, Mustin, North Canyon, Phoenix
	Farmer, Rancho Bernardo	2:13.15 (23)
1600	Fahy, La Costa Canyon	4:48.34  (18)	Duarte, Chino Hills	4:42.58	4:37.07,Parks, Antrim, Greencastle, Pennsylvania
3200	Fahy, La Costa Canyon	10:11.38 (1)	Lowe, Clovis Buchanan	10:12.78	9:53.30, Tuohy, Thiells, North Rockland, N.Y.
	Dorostkar,  Canyon Crest	10:26.15 (9)
	Wallace, Sage Creek	10:33.10 (16)
100 Hurdles	Redon, San Diego	:14.17w (6) :14.28	Shearer San Jose Silver Creek	:13.24w	:13.02, Hawkins, Centralia, Missouri
	James, San Diego	:14.44w (12)
	Vaught, Steele Canyon	:14.66w (24)
300 Hurdles	Edwards, San Pasqual	:43.95 (14)	Glenn, Long Beach Wilson	:41.01	:40.78, Wilson,  Godwin, Richmond, Virginia
300 Hurdles	Mayo, Grossmont	:44.32 (22)
	Occiano, Mission Hills	:44.34 (23)
4×100 Relay	Scripps Ranch	:46.51 (1)	Calabasas	:45.95	:44.24, DeSoto, Texas
	Canyon Crest	:47.80 (25)
4×400 Relay	Scripps Ranch	3:50.63 (10)	Eastvale Roosevelt	3:43.77	3:39.79, DeSoto, Texas
High Jump	Hickey, Coronado	5-10 ½ (1)	Harris, Bakersfield Golden Valley	5-10	5-11 ½, Bottellier, Palisades, Kinterville, Pennsylvania
	Scales, Madison	5-6 (12T)
	Roberts, Westview	5-6 (12T)
Long Jump	Hickey, Coronado	20-9w (1) 20-2	Harris, Upland	20-8 1/2	21-2 ¼w, 20-5 3/4 Bryant, Memorial, Houston
	Hardyway, Oceanside	19-0 ¾ (11)
	Scott, Gompers	19-0 ½ (12)
	Miller, San Pasqual	18-10 ½ (17T)
	Shaheed, Madison	18-10 (21T)
Triple Jump	Miller, San Pasqual	40-06w (3) 40-2	Shearer, San Jose Silver Creek	41-3 3/4	44-10, Moore, Lake Ridge, Mansfield, Texas
	Scott, Gompers Prep	39-5 ½ (14)
	Hardyway, Oceanside	39-0 ½ (20)
Shot Put	Tuatasi, West Hills	45-1 ½ (8)	Budwig, Fowler	49-2 3/4	50-1 ½, Hoekstre, Seaside, Oregon
	Lagoy, Rancho Bernardo	42-0 (19)
	McNairy, San Diego	41-9 ½ (21)
Discus	Cruz, Mission Hills	139-3 (23)	Budwig, Fowler	171-10	176-8, Meyer, Superior, Nebraska
	Tuatasi, West Hills	138-0 (25)
Pole Vault	Callahan, Torrey Pines	13-6 (2T)	Funk, Clovis West	13-9	14-8, Cunliffe, West, Seattle, Washington
	Thomson, Poway	13-3 (5)
	Cervantes, Poway	13-0 (8T)
	Grudman, Sage Creek	12-6 (13T)
	Ray, Rancho Bernardo	12-0 (23T)