HIGH SCHOOL TRACK FINALS : MID-VALLEY LEAGUE : San Fernando Boys Lose Mile Relay to a Pull and the Prom

By the look on his face, you wouldn’t have known that Shelton Boykin had won two races at the Mid-Valley League track and field finals Friday at Birmingham High.

Boykin, a junior at San Fernando High, was upset about two things. He said he felt as if he ran “slow” despite winning the 110-meter high hurdles in 14.3 seconds and the 300 intermediate hurdles in 39.6.

“And I’m mad because I think our mile-relay team can win the City,” he said.

But Boykin will never know for sure, because the Tigers’ mile-relay team didn’t even compete Friday.

The team was a casualty of San Fernando’s senior prom, Boykin said. The dance is scheduled for May 23, the same night as the City finals. Or so Boykin thought. The finals are actually the following week. The semifinals fall on the same night as the prom.

“We wouldn’t run until 7 or 8 p.m.,” Boykin said, “and the prom is at 8.”

Yet the team apparently decided not to run Friday because of the time conflict.

“If we won today, and then next week, it would be good,” said Reggie Prince, another member of the relay team. “But come the big one, we would have had to scratch because of the prom.”

Prince, a senior, also seemed to have his dates mixed. The City quarterfinals are next week, the semifinals follow a week later--and the finals follow a week after that.

“The prom has nothing to do with it,” San Fernando Coach Richard Kiwan said. “The kids are confused.”

Kiwan said an injury to the Tigers’ best quarter-miler, David Richards, was the real reason the team did not run.

“He has been bothered by a muscle pull in his leg for three weeks,” Kiwan said. “And he aggravated it in the 400 meters today. So he scratched from the relay. We felt the team should then scratch.”

Prince agreed, saying, “We felt we should not run if we were not 100%.”

Still, as Boykin watched the race--which was the last of the day--he couldn’t help but wonder.

“Look at that guy, he’s slow,” Boykin said about one of the runners from the Kennedy team, which won the race at 3:29.3. “We would have been in the lead.”

Boykin began the meet by winning the 110 high hurdles in league-record time. His time of 14.3 bettered the 1984 mark of 14.6 by San Fernando’s John Anderson.

Kelley Peacock of Van Nuys won three events, the 100 low hurdles (14.4), the 300 low hurdles (44.9) and the long jump (17-6 1/2).

Kierstin Church of Granada Hills was the only other girl to win more than one event, capturing the 100 (11.8) and the 200 (25.1).

Along with Boykin, the other double winner in the boys division was Kennedy’s Boris Gurarie, who won the 100 in 10.8 and the 200 in 22.1.

The top four finishers in each event qualified for the City quarterfinals on Thursday at Birmingham. Teams from the Mid-Valley, West Valley, Southern and Western leagues will compete Thursday. On Friday, members of the East Valley, Eastern, Northern and Marine leagues will travel to Birmingham for the quarterfinals.