Locke Edges Birmingham for Team Title in City Track

After more than 5 hours of competition Thursday, the City Section boys’ track and field team championship came down to a single 3-minute 15.0-second race.

Give or take a few seconds depending on the team.

The 1,600-meter relay, the final event of the day, took exactly that long for winning Dorsey High. But the real race was waged between Locke and Birmingham.

Birmingham trailed first-place Locke by three points entering the 1,600 relay and the Braves had to finish at least fourth and two places ahead of Locke to claim their first City boys’ championship.

Four laps and eight lead changes later Locke solidified its grasp on the perpetual trophy, finishing second in 3:17.6 (hand timed) to Birmingham’s third-place effort (3:18.5) and edging the Braves, 55-50, at Birmingham High.

Defending champion Washington finished third with 44 points. Dorsey (35) was fourth and San Fernando (32) fifth.

Leadoff runner Patrick Abdelkerim made up the stagger on Locke’s Orlando Bustamante in the first 100 of the 1,600 relay en route to a 51.1-second split, but Bustamante pulled even with the Birmingham junior before the first handoff.

Tony Serpas (49.7) shot to the front on Birmingham’s second leg and ran abreast of Dorsey’s runner down the backstretch with Charles Gates of Locke lurking in fourth place. Gates steamed around the second turn and slipped by Serpas 20 meters before the second exchange.

Manuel Goodman (49.7) regained Birmingham’s lead over Locke on the backstretch of the third leg. Dorsey’s Lamont Warren was out of Goodman’s reach. With 100 meters to go Locke’s Robert Jackson stormed by Goodman and reached the exchange zone first, setting up a stirring anchor-leg duel between Amado Coleman of Locke and Mike Moguel of Birmingham.

With Dorsey on its way to the win, Moguel chased Coleman on the backstretch and passed him with 220 meters remaining and pushed to about a six-meter lead before Coleman, pumping his arms vigorously, surged past Moguel with 60 meters to go.

“I shouldn’t have let him get by me,” said Moguel, who also finished third in the 400 in 48.56. “We’re disappointed but we did a lot better (as a team) than a lot of people thought we would.”

The same foursome earlier finished fourth in the 400 relay in 42.17. Washington, despite missing a runner because of academic ineligibility, won in 41.69. Locke was second in 41.70 and San Fernando, behind a furious anchor-stretch sprint by Leonice Brown, placed third in 42.08.

The top four finishers in each event advance to the state preliminaries next Friday at Cerritos College.

Birmingham’s Howard Schrier successfully defended his City title in the pole vault, going 13-6 to beat Verdugo Hills’ Justin Van Fleet (13-6) on fewer attempts. Teammate Darrell Moore placed fifth in both the long jump (20 feet 2 1/2 inches) and triple jump (42-7 3/4).

Washington’s hopes of defending its City title took a severe downturn earlier in the week when 110-meter high hurdles specialist Raven Manager--who also runs on the 400 relay team--was declared academically ineligible.

Birmingham’s Raymond Banner, a junior, won the 110 high hurdles in a personal-best 14.72 and teammate Pierre Derosiers, who missed a month of training at the beginning of the season because of a sprained ankle, was second in 14.80. “I was relieved, but disappointed,” Derosiers said of the absence of Manager.

After the 400 relay, Brown won the 100 and finished second in the 200. Washington’s John Carter won the 200 and finished second in the 100.

In the 100, Brown was third after about 50 meters but edged past Carter and Crenshaw’s Donnell Moore to win in 10.73. Carter was second in 10.76 and Moore third at 10.85. In the 200, Brown lacked speed on the curve and was unable to recover from the slow start. Carter won in 21.46, and Brown, hampered by a wrist injury, placed second in 21.56.

“Coming around the turn I didn’t have the same burst of speed that I usually have,” Brown said. “I just gave in. As long as I won one today, I’m happy.”