Prep Notebook / Rob Fernas : Injuries, Swifter Foes Crush State Champion Hawthorne at Penn Relays

Hawthorne High’s track team traveled to the Penn Relays in Philadelphia last week with hopes of conquering the powerful Jamaicans and making good as the first California high school to compete in the prestigious meet.

The Cougars returned home with bruised egos and an education.

“This is a hard place for California teams to win,” said Hawthorne Coach Kye Courtney. “You lose three hours in the time change, the weather is windy and rainy, and the track is all turns.”

In other words, the defending state champions didn’t set the world on fire despite coming into the meet as the national leader in the 1,600-meter relay.

The Cougars never made it to the finals after injuries to Chris Alexander (hip pointer) and Travis Hannah (strained hamstring) forced them to pull out Saturday after posting the fastest time (3:13.8) in the trials.

“We could have run with them taped up, but we probably would have lost them for the rest of the year,” Courtney said. “We asked them, ‘What’s more important?’ They said winning our state championship.”

Had the Cougars been heathly, there’s no doubt in Courtney’s mind that they would have placed first in the 1,600 relay. Calabar High of Jamaica won with a time of 3:12.84 out of an original field of 425 teams.

“I felt we would have won the race by 20 meters,” he said. “We would have run 3:10. But we couldn’t recover in time.”

Alexander and Hannah were injured in the 400 relay finals. Hawthorne placed fourth in 41.53 behind three Jamaican high schools, who consider the Penn Relays something of a national showcase. Vera Tech of Jamaica swept the girls relays.

Many of the 50,000 spectators who jammed Franklin Field had hoped Hawthorne would break the Jamaicans’ dominance. One was Bill Cosby, who shouted words of encouragement to the Cougars’ leadoff runner, Alexander, before the 1,600 relay trials.

“Everyone there was very hospitable to us,” Courtney said. “It’s an exciting place. On Saturday they pack it. We took a few coaches with us and they said they’d never seen anything like it.”

Despite the disappointment, Courtney says he would like to take another team to the Penn Relays.

Perhaps he remembers what happened to Hawthorne at the Texas Relays. The Cougars had trouble in their first appearance in the meet but returned the next year, in 1984, and set the national record in the 1,600 relay.

Because of the hamstring injury, Hawthorne’s Hannah was granted a waiver by Ocean League coaches to skip the league preliminaries Tuesday and advance directly to the 200- and 400-meter finals Friday at Santa Monica College.

Santa Monica sprinter Glyn Milburn, who is in Washington receiving an award from President Reagan, was also granted a waiver in the 100 and 200.

Hawthorne wrapped up its seventh consecutive league dual-meet title last week by easily defeating Santa Monica and Beverly Hills in a tri-meet. The Cougar girls won their sixth league crown in the last seven years.

After Friday’s meet, Hawthorne will begin defense of its Southern Section 4-A title at the divisional prelims on May 14 at Gahr High in Cerritos.

Shaunda Greene of Morningside and Harold Miner of Inglewood were honored with the South Bay player of the year awards, while Frank Scott of Morningside and Phil Sherman of Leuzinger were named coaches of the year at The Times High School Basketball Awards Brunch on Sunday at the Anaheim Hilton.

Greene, a three-time all-Southern Section pick, led the Morningside girls team to the 4-A Division and Southern California regional titles. The 6-foot forward averaged 25 points and 11 rebounds a game and recently signed a letter of intent with Washington.

Miner, a 6-5 junior forward, came into his own last season by averaging 27 points and 11 rebounds in leading Inglewood to a 4-A playoff berth. Miner was named the most outstanding player in the Ocean League and was selected to the all-CIF 4-A first team.

Scott coached the Morningside girls to their second 4-A title (the first was in 1983) and a 33-2 season. The Lady Monarchs were the No. 1-ranked team in the state until their 53-52 loss to Fremont of Oakland in the Division I state final in Oakland.

Sherman guided Leuzinger to the most dramatic single-season turnaround in the Southern Section last season. The Olympians went from 1-19 in Sherman’s first season as coach to 17-6, Pioneer League champions and 3-A Division playoff qualifiers.

When the dust settled Tuesday, three teams were tied for third place in the Bay League baseball race and the league’s best pitcher was left wondering “what if?”

North Torrance right-hander Greg Davis came within one pitch of throwing a no-hitter, yielding a two-out single in the seventh inning as the Saxons moved into sole possession of first place with a 4-0 win over host Torrance.

Pinch-hitter Dennis Miller lined Davis’ 0-2 pitch into left-center field for Torrance’s hit. Davis improved to 5-2 in league play and North (9-3) moved one game ahead of West Torrance (8-4), which was dealt a 7-4 loss by Palos Verdes.

Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills and South Torrance are tied for third place at 6-6. In key games today at 3 p.m., Rolling Hills plays at South and Palos Verdes visits West.

While Carson’s football team was bolstered by the transfer of quarterback Perry Klein two weeks ago, Redondo figures to be hurt by two transfers who are leaving the school.

Redondo Coach Les Congelliere said the Sea Hawks will not return sophomore Mark Fisher, an outside linebacker and backup quarterback last season, and junior Mike Salas, an inside linebacker and offensive guard, because their families are moving out of the area.

Fisher, a 6-2, 190-pounder, was expected to be one of the team’s top players. Salas was a returning all-Pioneer League performer.

“Fisher is the first Division I prospect we’ve had in a long time,” said Congelliere. “His loss will hurt us.”

Nearly two months after it started, the 18th annual Redondo/Palos Verdes Baseball Tournament will draw to a close Saturday with the finals.

Redondo plays host to Gahr of Cerritos in the championship game at 7 p.m. and El Segundo faces Alemany of Mission Hills in the junior varsity finals at 3 p.m., also at Redondo.

In 11 a.m. games involving South Bay teams, Leuzinger plays at Cerritos in the third-place game, El Segundo travels to Thousand Oaks in the ninth-place game, West visits Crespi of Encino for the consolation finals, University of L. A. plays at North in the ninth-place consolation final and Mira Costa plays at South in the fifth-place consolation game.

One game in the tournament, which is sponsored by Domino’s Pizza in Redondo Beach, will be played Friday. Westchester plays host to Palos Verdes at 3 p.m. in the 11th-place game.

PREP NOTES--One team and 14 athletes from the South Bay will be recognized for academic excellence at the third annual Angels/Ford Academic Awards Program on Monday night at Anaheim Stadium. Awards will be presented in a ceremony prior to the Angels-Cleveland Indians game. Miraleste’s boys volleyball team, which carries a cumulative grade-point average of 3.36, is among the Southern Section teams honored from 20 sports. Athletes recognized include Dave Lubs of El Segundo (3.74), Daniel Pereira of Mary Star (3.65), William Breiholtz of Miraleste (3.71), Joel Wiljanen of Redondo (3.72), Brad Ermeling of South Bay Lutheran (4.0), Katsumi Matsumoto of South Torrance (4.0), Rod Landis of St. Bernard (3.64) and Mark Herbers of Torrance (3.58). South Bay girls to be honored are Laura Papadakis of Mary Star (3.58), Linda Ba of Miraleste (4.0), Jade Hiramoto of North Torrance (4.0), Christina Wells of Redondo (3.72), Randy Hunt of South Torrance (3.96) and Susan Kypson of Torrance (3.92) . . . Redondo remained the No. 1-ranked team in the CIF Southern Section 4-A Division baseball poll, while El Segundo stayed in the No. 3 spot. The teams will meet in a two-game series next Wednesday and Friday that will most likely decide the Pioneer League title.

South Bay Top 10 Boys’ Baseball

Selected by Times sportswriters

(Records through Tuesday’s games)

Rank, School, League Record

1 Redondo (Pioneer) 23-1

2 St. Bernard (Camino Real) 15-3

3 El Segundo (Pioneer) 18-6

4 Banning (Marine) 13-6

5 San Pedro (Marine) 14-5

6 North Torrance (Bay)15-8

7 West Torrance (Bay) 14-6

8 Carson (Marine) 11-7-1

9 Leuzinger (Pioneer) 11-12

10 Palos Verdes (Bay) 10-12