Brown Keeps Focus on Victory : Prep track: San Fernando sprinter wins 200-meter dash in City quarterfinals with personal-best time of 21.32 despite having an insect fly into his eye.

A thousand or so pairs of eyes were watching Leonice Brown as he aligned his starting blocks for the 100- and 200-meter dashes in the City Section track and field quarterfinals Thursday, but the San Fernando High sprinter cared about one pair in particular.

They belonged to Compton’s Ricky Carrigan, who owns the state’s best high school marks this year in both sprints.

“He’s here,” Brown said of the Southern Section standout sitting in the stands. “He’s watching me. “

As it turned out, Brown and Carrigan both got an eyeful in the 200.

The Tiger senior timed a personal-best 21.32 seconds, the second-fastest time in the state this year to Carrigan’s 21.09, then walked to the infield at Birmingham High after his 200 heat and lay in the grass.

Brown wasn’t hurt. An insect had flown into his left eye while he was trying to hold off Locke’s Kyhaunn Woods down the stretch. Woods finished in 21.59, the fifth-best mark in the state this season.

“Something got in (my eye) when I was running . . . it’s still in there,” Brown said.

Brown also gunned down Kennedy standout Ontiwaun Carter on the anchor leg of the 400 relay and ran a wind-aided 10.81 to win his 100 heat over Chatsworth’s Delvon Hardaway (10.97).

In the relay, Brown took the baton from Amon Flanagan in fourth place, swooped past Westchester’s anchor and nipped Carter at the finish line for second place. Locke won in 42.22 and San Fernando and Kennedy each timed 43.16, but the photo finish awarded second to the Tigers. “I said to myself, ‘I see him. I have to catch him,’ ” Brown said of Carter.

Brown got out to a fast start in the 100 but because of the increasing winds, his was not the fastest time of the day.

Jerald Martin of Kennedy and Woods each timed 10.71 in finishing first and second, respectively, in the other 100 heat. Maurice Smith of Jordan was third in 10.84.

The top four finishers in each heat in the running events and top eight marks in the field events advanced to the City semifinals Thursday at Birmingham.

Jaffers Bailey of El Camino Real easily won his heat in the 110 high hurdles in 15.05 but had to run a personal best in the 400 to hold off a strong surge from Taft’s Ruben Benitez to win heat two.

Bailey clocked 49.59 and Benitez slipped by Jordan’s James Wheeler in the final 50 meters to finish second in 50.03. Wheeler ran 51.06.

“I didn’t know where he was,” Bailey said of Benitez. “I was looking for him in the corner of my eye. I couldn’t see him.”

Bailey came back to run a 49.1 anchor on El Camino Real’s 1,600 relay team, but the Conquistadores finished a nonqualifying sixth in 3 minutes 32.76 seconds.

Granada Hills sprinter Patrice Lattimore and Kennedy hurdler Oriana Cavallaro also were double winners Thursday.

Lattimore won her heats in the 100 and 200, running 12.33 and 25.48. Both of her times were the second fastest of the day to Locke’s Danielle Frost, who timed 12.22 and 25.38.

Cavallaro leaned past Chita Obasi at the line to win her 100 low hurdles heat in 15.8 (hand timed). In the 300 low hurdles Cavallaro ran a personal best and the fastest time of the day in 48.05.