Notebook / Mitch Polin : Muir and Hawthorne Girls Are Neck-and-Neck for Track Title

Is it Muir and Hawthorne or Hawthorne and Muir?

With the start of the CIF Southern Section track and field season still a few weeks away, many experts are already conceding the girls team title to one of them.

The only question is which one.

Muir Coach Jim Brownfield thinks the teams are so close that the CIF championship will be decided in the mile relay, the last running event.

That should make for an interesting race when Muir and Hawthorne go head-to-head in the girls 8x160 relay at the Times Indoor Games at 7 p.m. Friday at the Forum in Inglewood. The other schools in the race are Louisville and Crenshaw.

It was pretty much a draw the last time the two squads met, at the Sunkist Invitational Indoor Meet on Jan. 18 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Muir, competing in a different heat from Hawthorne, tied the national record in the 640-yard relay in 1:13.4. But Hawthorne beat Muir in the mile relay.

Don’t be surprised if the teams equal or break another record Friday.

Other San Gabriel Valley prep athletes are participating in the Times Indoor Games.

Pasadena will meet Fremont, Long Beach Poly and Hawthorne in the boys 8x160 relay and Ganesha senior Michelle Taylor faces Choo Choo Knighten of Locke, Kerri Zaleski of Millikan and Andrea Thomas of the Dolphin Bronx (N. Y.) International Track Club in the girls 500-yard run.

Mt. San Antonio will be matched against El Camino, Long Beach and Glendale in the community college mile relay.

It may be merely coincidental, but the Cal Poly Pomona baseball team has a habit of making the NCAA Division II World Series in seasons when it plays a tournament or series of non-conference games in Hawaii.

Since 1975, the Broncos have played in Hawaii on five occasions and the last four times they have reached the World Series.

After leaving the mainland, Pomona came back to win national titles in 1976, 1980 and 1983 and reached the finals in 1979.

That could be an ominous sign for Bronco competition because Pomona will play six games in Hawaii against the University of Hawaii, Hawaii-Hilo and BYU Hawaii on March 19-23.

The Broncos have many key players from last year’s team that finished with a 24-32 record.

If you thought you saw Steve Young playing quarterback and John Hadl coaching on Kellogg Field at Cal Poly Pomona one afternoon last week, you were not seeing things.

It was Young and Hadl.

The Los Angeles Express of the United States Football League is holding controlled scrimmages against the Portland Breakers on Thursdays while the Breakers are having their preseason training camp at Cal Poly Pomona.

The next scrimmage, which should last about an hour, is at 1:30 p.m. today at Kellogg.

Which San Gabriel Valley high school has the best combined girls and boys basketball record?

You would be wrong if you guessed Muir or Pomona. The answer is Marshall Fundamental of Pasadena, which had a combined record of 32-5 going into this week’s games (15-3 for the boys and 17-2 for the girls).

The rest of the top five are Muir (33-6), Pomona (28-6), Wilson (33-9) and Monrovia (29-8).