Serra’s Sullivan States Her Case Quickly : Track and field: Sprinter beats rival Monica Henderson in 100-meter race at the City Conference finals.

Serra’s Angela Sullivan wasn’t really looking forward to racing against the section’s fastest sprinter, Morse’s Monica Henderson, at Friday’s City Conference finals.

Recent history was nagging her.

Sullivan placed second to Henderson at the Sundevil Invitational on March 28. Soon after Sullivan went down with a hip-flexor injury, which altered her training.

She couldn’t participate in any invitational meets for the rest of the season.

But Sullivan was anything but rusty during the 100 meters at Friday’s City Eastern League finals. After following Henderson out of the blocks, Sullivan sprinted past her rival to win by a wide margin, clocking a 12.08 to Henderson’s 12.61.

It was more than a reversal of the Sundevil meet when Henderson came in at 12.42 and Sullivan followed at 12.44.

“I was expecting a little more out of Monica,” Sullivan said.

And for good reason. Before Sullivan eclipsed it, Henderson had the section’s best time of the year in the 100 (12.39).

Both Sullivan and Henderson also battled in the 200 meters. Again, Sullivan broke the tape first, finishing at 24.75, more than a full second ahead of Henderson (25.95).

Serra’s Akeim Brown lowered his section-leading time in the 400 by finishing the City Eastern finals race in 49.33. Morse’s Jerry Harris (49.81) came in second and also finished better than Brown’s previous Section best for the year (49.83).

Like Sullivan, Lincoln senior Scott Hammond doubled in the 100 and 200. Unlike Sullivan, he had little competition.

Hammond won the Central League finals in the 100 at 10.76, then took an easy victory in the 200, 21.42. San Diego’s Etroy Nelson was second in each event, coming in at 10.99 in the 100 and at 22.07 in the 200.

Hammond’s best event is the 200. He has had trouble in the 200, especially coming around the turn, where he tends to cock his head back instead of focusing ahead.

But Friday he showed that he has corrected that flaw, then boasted that he was shooting for a sub-21.0 performance by the end of the year.

If Hammond does this, he would be the first in the Section to run under 21.0. In 1987, Crawford’s Ray Ethridge nearly did so, but settled for a section record of 21.0.

Point Loma’s Michael Driver could not run in any of his specialties because of an injury, but he nevertheless received a bye into the section preliminaries in the 100 meters, the 200 and the 110 high hurdles. Driver has the Section’s third-best time of the year in the 200 at 21.8.