Hawthorne on Track in CIF Preliminaries

There was nothing Earth-shaking about Hawthorne High’s performance Saturday in the CIF-Southern Section 4A track prelims at Camarillo High.

The Cougars just took care of business, as usual, although Coach Kye Courtney certainly wasn’t raving about what he saw.

The boys’ team qualified in eight events for Saturday’s divisional finals at Cerritos College, while the girls qualified in six. However, Courtney wasn’t pleased about their performance in the sprints, normally Hawthorne’s strength.

“We were kind of out of it,” said Courtney, whose Cougars are trying to win their sixth consecutive state championship. “We were running like we were in practice this week--lousy. But I’m not ready to push the panic button.”

Some of Courtney’s uneasiness was because of factors beyond his control, such as the slight cramp to star sprinter Curtis Conway.

“I felt a slight pull (in the first race),” said Conway, who anchored the 400-meter relay team but was moved to the third spot in the 1,600 relay. “But I think everything will be OK.”

Hawthorne finished with the second-fastest qualifying time in the 400 relay (41.93) behind Long Beach Poly (41.89). The teams ran in seperate heats. In the 1,600, the Cougars placed fourth in 3:21.08.

The other boys qualifiers for Hawthorne were Chris Alexander, Erik Allen and Conway (100); Allen and Conway (200); Keith Pouncey and Dean Dunbar (110 high hurdles); Erik Tolbert (shot put); Anthony Smith (long jump), and Ismael Delpino (400).

The Cougar girls who qualified were Konika Conwright (100 and 200), Kesha Marvin (400), Rhonda Kennerson (800 and 400 relay) and the 1,600 relay team.

Other South Bay boys’ qualifiers were Blake Boggess of Palos Verdes and Scott Ordway of Rolling Hills (1,600), Isreal Posse of Torrance (3,200), Leuzinger (400 relay); Tim Camillo of Leuzinger and Greg Wiler of Rolling Hills (pole vault).

Torrance’s Jennifer Tully had the best long jump of 18-10 1/4.