Memories of 1981 Still Linger : Prep track: Berkeley won both the boys’ and girls’ titles in a memorable two-day event.

Imagine achieving a personal best in a State high school track and field meet, establishing a state record, and be lost in the crowd?

That is what happened to four performers in the 1981 State meet, which has been called one of the best high school meets ever.

The two-day championships in 1981 had five national and nine State records broken.

“I don’t think that there has ever been a state meet like that,” said Charles Leathers, who coached the Compton Centennial High boys’ track team in 1981. “As a matter of fact, I’m sure there hasn’t been. That meet was something special. It was something you never forget.”

For months leading up to the meet, track fans followed the performances of the top athletes around the state. In nearly every boys’ and girls’ event, the state boasted a record-breaking performer.

When the meet finally arrived, there was so much interest that for the second-day finals, the stadium gates were locked and the selling of tickets was stopped nearly 20 minutes before the first running event.

“What I remember most is that we were warming up across the field before the meet even started and I looked at the stands near the finish line and it was packed with people,” said Leathers, now coaching at Riverside North. “There was so much electricity in the air. I remember people climbing over the fence trying to get in because they didn’t get a ticket.”

A major reason for the standing-room-only crowd of 14,250 was the Berkeley High team.

Under the guidance of Coach Willie White--who had led Los Angeles Jefferson High to the state title in 1956--Berkeley had maybe the best combined boys’ and girls’ team ever in the state. The Yellowjacket lineup read like a “Who’s Who” of America’s top high school runners.

Behind sprinter Sharon Ware and hurdler Sherifa Sanders, its girls’ team had the best 400-meter relay team in the nation. And the boys’ team, which had won the state title the year before, had sprinter Ken Robinson and half-miler Pete Richardson.

But Southern California teams were not about to concede the spotlight without a fight. Led by Compton Centennial’s boys’ teams and Granada Hills Kennedy’s girls’ teams, local teams were intent on preventing Berkeley from becoming the first school to win boys’ and girls’ titles in the same year.

It turned out to be a futile effort. Berkeley dominated, setting three national records and establishing new highs for points in a state meet in both theboys’ and girls’ divisions.

Berkeley won five boys’ events and finished with 58 points. National records were set by Richardson, who won the 800 meters in 1:47.31, and Walter Murray, who ran 35.79 in a heat and won the 300-meter low hurdles.

The Yellowjackets scored their biggest victory, though, in the 1,600-meter relay, where they avenged a loss to Centennial the previous year by breaking the Apaches’ national record in the event with a time of 3:08.94.

“People from Northern California kept calling down the last two weeks of the season, asking us if we were ready for them,” Leathers said. “I thought we would give them good competition but they were loaded. They had everyone back from the previous year and added Murray in the hurdles.

“I think that Berkeley really changed the way programs are run now because after that, schools started having super programs with athletes from all over. It changed things where no longer did you have kids from the same neighborhoods on the same team because they started to go to the schools that were good. You started having all-star teams.”

In winning the girls’ title with 64 points, Berkeley was led by Ware, who won the 100 and finished third in the 200, and Sanders, who set a state record in the 100-meter low hurdles.

Berkeley might have had the most celebrated team in the meet, but the Yellowjackets had to share the spotlight to some other impressive performances, which included:

--Kennedy’s 1,600-meter girls’ relay team, which broke its own national record of 3:37.71.

--Shotputter Natalie Kaaiawahia of Fullerton, who as a sophomore set a national record of 51 feet 8 1/2 inches and also won the discus in 162-10.

One other performer in the 1981 meet was long jump world record-holder Mike Powell of West Covina Edgewood, who finished behind former USC standout Anthony Caire of Downey Pius X in the high jump.