HIGH SCHOOL TRACK / STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS : Antelope Valley’s Dreher Sneaks Up in Long Jump

Of all the titlists in the state high school track and field championships before 10,320 at Cerritos College on Saturday, it would be difficult to find a more unlikely winner than Eugene Dreher of Antelope Valley High.

The 6-foot-4 1/2, 192-pound senior won the long jump in the Sunkist Invitational meet at the Sports Arena in February with a leap of 23 feet 1 1/4 inches, but that mark had remained his personal best until Friday’s qualifying round when he leaped 23-10 1/2.

On Saturday, he capped his season with a wind-aided mark of 24-1 1/2 in the second round, 7 3/4 inches farther than runner-up Kyjione Jack of Moreno Valley Canyon Springs. Dreher also had a wind-aided effort of 24-0 3/4 in the third round.

“I’m not really that surprised I won,” said Dreher, ranked eighth entering the meet. “I really worked hard over the last part of the season. After Sunkist, I didn’t really get a big head, but I kind of relaxed more than I should have in training.”

Dreher, who placed fourth in the Southern Section 4-A Division championships and second in last week’s Masters meet, relaxed so much that he failed to win a couple of Golden League dual meets.

“That kind of woke me up,” Dreher said. “When I started to lose to juniors and sophomores, I knew I had to get going.”

Said assistant Brent Newcomb: “He peaked at the right time. You could see it coming. Everyone in the stands could see he had a 24-foot jump in him.”

Dreher was third after the first round with a leap of 22-3 3/4, and he had been pushed back to sixth in the second round before calmly unloading his 24-1 1/2 effort as the last jumper in that stanza.

He is the second long jumper from Antelope Valley to win a state title; Percy Knox accomplished the feat in 1987.

Fillmore senior Nikki Shaw was attempting to become the first athlete from her school to win a state title since 1939, but she finished a distant second in the girls’ 1,600 meters behind Shelley Taylor of Huntington Beach Edison.

Taylor ran 4 minutes 48.52 seconds, the fastest girls’ prep time in the nation this season. Shaw placed second in 4:53.40 and Agoura freshman Amy Skieresz took third.

Taylor and Shaw broke from the pack with 600 meters to go, but when Taylor accelerated with 300 meters left, Shaw did not respond.

“I was determined to run as tough a race as I possibly could,” said Shaw, who was nursing a sore arch in her right foot. “But in the end, you can’t fool Mother Nature.”

Maribella Aparicio, Shaw’s junior teammate, ran a beautifully paced race to finish second in the girls’ 3,200 in a region-leading time of 10:39.08. Fallbrook junior Milena Glusac won in 10:28.62.

Jeremy Fischer, a Camarillo sophomore, cleared 6-9 in the high jump and tied for fourth.

Daniel Das Neves of La Mesa Helix won his second consecutive state title in the boys’ 1,600 meters with a time of 4:09.54. Jeff Wilson of Newbury Park was considered Das Neves’ primary challenger, but he faded in the final 200 meters and placed fourth in 4:12.42.

Agoura junior Ryan Wilson closed well to finish fifth in 4:13.25.

Drue Powell of Reseda, Marcus Stokes of Thacher and Raymond Banner of Birmingham finished third, fourth and fifth in the boys’ 110 high hurdles with wind-aided times of 14.16, 14.17 and 14.26.

Long Beach Poly won the girls’ title with 39 points. Thousand Oaks was fifth with 21 and Fillmore finished in an eighth-place tie with 16.

* JONES SETS RECORDS IN 100, 200: C2