PREP TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS : SOUTH COAST LEAGUE : Desimone’s High Jump Helps Dana Hills Beat El Toro for Title

The Dana Hills’ track and field team edged El Toro for the South Coast League title with the help of a strong performance in the high jump at the league championships Friday at Irvine High School.

Dana Hills won the meet with 119 points to El Toro’s 105. San Clemente was third with 95 points. Dolphin high jumper Mike Desimone, whose previous best this year was 6 feet 2 inches, according to Dana Hills Coach Taz Murtaugh, jumped 6-6 to win.

“The high jump probably won the meet for us,” said first-year Coach Murtaugh. “A few events were really surprises because we knew it would be close.”

Senior Daniel Niednagel also helped Dana Hills, winning the 800 and 1,600 meters and running a leg on the championship 1,600 relay. Niednagel’s best race probably was the 800, which he won in a personal best 1 minute 54.0 seconds. El Toro’s Greg Nelson (1:56.9) and Steve McCaslin (1:59.0) were second and third respectively, in a tight race. Niednagel then came back after less than an hour’s rest to win the 1,600 in 4:24.2.

“I was really stoked with the 800,” Niednagel said.

In other boys’ events, San Clemente’s Tim Martin easily won the 100 (10.4) and 200 (21.3) and Capistrano Valley’s Bernie Chapman won the long jump at 22-11 and the triple jump at 46-9 1/2.

Mission Viejo won the girls’ meet with 143 points to runner-up Dana Hills’ 94. The Diablos’ Andrea Dean won the 100 (12.5) and 200 (26.1) and ran on the 1,600 relay, which won in 4:04.1. Dean outlasted Irvine’s Jennifer Gillis on the anchor leg of the relay.