Arnold Leads Morningside to CIF Title : Prep track: Sophomore sprinter wins 100-meter dash in meet she missed last year because of injury.

Sophomore sprinter Santeshia Arnold led the Morningside High girls’ track team to the CIF 2-A Division title at the Southern Section championship meet Friday at Cerritos College.

Arnold won the 100-meter dash, finished second in the 200 meters, anchored the Lady Monarchs’ runner-up 400-meter relay team and ran on their victorious 1,600-meter relay team.

Although results won’t be official until Tuesday, pending the finish of the triple-jump competition, Morningside clinched the championship Friday by outscoring co-favorite Irvine Woodbridge, 83-46.

Arnold said Morningside didn’t lose confidence despite being upset by St. Bernard in the 400-meter relay.

“We had some problems with the (baton) exchange between the second and third legs and we still were right there,” she said.

Arnold, who won the 100 and 200 meters at the Bay League championships last spring, missed the 1989 Southern Section finals because of a stress fracture in her foot, apparently caused by running on her toes too much.

This season Arnold learned a new running style and said it was easy to get motivated for Friday’s meet.

“You think, ‘I’ve got to get first so I can get the 10 points for the team,’ ” she said. “And (as an individual) you want to go to the state meet.”

The only other South Bay girl to win an individual event Friday was Morningside’s Lisa Leslie, who won the high jump at 5 feet, 5 inches and was second in the long jump at 17-6 3/4.

St. Bernard’s Lisa Moxley anchored the winning 400-meter relay team and finished fourth in the 100 meters and fourth in the 300-meter low hurdles. She was responsible for eight of St. Bernard’s 24 points.

Moxley said the relay victory was a career highlight. “It meant something extra to us to beat Morningside,” she said.

Morningside’s boys had their second consecutive strong outing in the 1,600-meter relay, taking second with a time of 3:23.53 after a season-best 3:21.74 last week.

Sophomore Travion Harris, who is also recovering from a stress fracture, ran the anchor leg. “Although we have a few injuries, everybody did their best and performed,” he said.

Morningside finished second in the 400-meter relay with a time of 43:10.3.

South Torrance hurdler Steve Smith finished second in the 110-meter high hurdles at 14.87 and fifth in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles at 40.23.

In the girls’ 4-A Division, Torrance’s Jennifer Tully took second in the long jump at 17-7 3/4, and Hawthorne was second to Pasadena Muir in the 4-A 400-meter relay at 47.69.