Monarchs Run Out of Steam in Bids for Titles : Track: Boys finish second to Bakersfield by a point. The defending champion girls lose to Long Beach Poly by 11 points.

Morningside High had to settle for second best in the State track and field championships Saturday at Cerritos College.

The Morningside boys placed second with 24 points, a point behind Bakersfield, and the girls’ team scored 28 points to finish second by 11 points to Long Beach Poly.

Morningside Coach Ron Tatum wasn’t disappointed over the runner-up finishes.

“We ended the season on a very good note,” he said. “I’m very satisfied with what we did. Looking at what we went in with in the boys, with only three qualifiers, we did OK. We also went up against a pretty good Long Beach Poly (girls’) team.”

Said assistant John Estrada: “Track and field is such a strange sport. You never know which way the wind will blow. To be honest, I didn’t look for us to win a State title. I just wanted us to be competitive.”

The Morningside boys were more competitive than expected. The Monarchs may have qualified in only three events, but made the most of their opportunities.

Morningside won the 400 and 1,600-meter relays and junior Edward Turner finished fourth in the 400-meter run. The Monarchs won the 400 relay in 42.04 seconds and the 1,600 relay in 3 minutes 15.37 seconds.

Turner, who finished in 48.09 in the 400, also anchored the Monarchs to the 1,600 title for the second year in a row.

“It was real special to go out this way,” Turner said. “If we couldn’t win the State, this was the next best thing. I just wanted to do it for the seniors because they’ve been like family to me. I didn’t want to let them down.”

In the girls’ division, defending champion Morningside had its only victory in the 400 relay. The Monarchs finished in 46.34. Morningside ran a 3:46.30 to finished second to Poly in the 1,600 relay.

The Monarchs’ top individual finisher was sophomore Tai-Ne Gibson, who was fourth in the 100 in 11.83 seconds.

Senior Sanoma Nickson finished seventh in the 100 and fifth in the 100 hurdles.

“It’s really a privilege to make it this far,” Nickson said. “We made it through the Master (Meet) and we made it to State and finished second and a lot of people don’t make it this far.”

Although she was disappointed in not winning another title, Nickson was happy with the success of the boys’ team.

“We were runner-ups but it was kind of nice for the boys because they’ve always been in our shadows and today they stepped out a bit,” she said.

Said Turner: “Many people didn’t think we’d get this far. But it just goes to show what can happen when you work at it.”

The Hawthorne boys’ team also made a strong showing by finishing third with 22 points.

“We did as well as we possibly could’ve done,” Coach Kye Courtney said. “I felt if we did as well as we could, we’d score 22 points and that’s what we scored.”

Senior Demond Smith won the 300 hurdles in 37.34 and finished second in the 110 hurdles in 14.10. The Cougars also finished fourth in the 400 relay in 42.21.

Smith had to struggle to win the 300 hurdles.

He was second to Chris Redmond of Vallejo before both stumbled over the final hurdle. But Smith finished with his best time of the season.

“We both fell over that last (hurdle),” Smith said. “I almost fell into the other lane and if I hadn’t fallen over like that, I would’ve run about two-tenths of a second faster. But I was just happy to win.”

Peninsula’s Goss Lindsey finished second in the 1,600 in 4:11.25, Nicole Haynes of Bishop Montgomery placed third in the long jump with a leap of 19-6 1/2 and Maya Muneno of Peninsula was sixth in the 3,200 in 11:00.94.

It was Haynes best leap of the season and second year in a row she finished third in the long jump.