TRACK AND FIELD : Dorsey Outruns Jinx to Win 1st Title Since ’89 : City Finals: The Dons won both relays and scored in 12 of 15 events to outdistance defending champion Birmingham. Patty Trejo of Belmont was the only female athlete to repeat as a winner.

Dorsey High boys’ track and field team came close to perfection Thursday to run away with its first City title since 1989 in the championships at Birmingham High.

Dorsey won both relays and scored in 12 of 15 events to secure its fourth title in school history. The Dons won championships in 1966, ’68 and ‘89, and although heavily favored last year, finished fifth after a series of mishaps.

Dorsey compiled 81 points to outdistance defending-champion Birmingham with 55. Fremont and Taft tied for third with 34 and Washington was fourth with 31.

“We wanted to break the curse,” said Dorsey senior Ramon Clark.

Clark and Anthony Wheeler led a 1-2 Dorsey sweep in the 800, running lifetime bests of 1 minute 55.20 seconds and 1:56.68.

Wheeler (50.2) and Clark (49.4) joined Scott Miles (50.3) and Anthony Williams (49.5) on the Dons’ 1,600-meter relay team, which won by nearly three seconds in 3:19.47 over runner-up Washington (3:23.60). Williams also placed second in the 400 in 49.53.

E.Z. Anderson, Jabulani Smith-Freeman, Miles and Leo Settle combined in the 400 relay to win comfortably in 42.25. Fremont and Washington were second and third in 42.58 and 42.61. Dorsey dropped the baton in the 400 relay in last year’s meet.

“You never know what’s going to happen with the relays,” said Dorsey Coach Ralph Tilley. “What happened last year was on the back of my mind, but I was keeping my fingers crossed. As it turned out, everything went well, even better than expected, in every event.”

Settle proved to be a prime example.

The junior defeated Tony Serpas of Birmingham and Kory Jones of Fremont to place second in the 200 in a wind-aided 21.41. Serpas and Jones were second and third at 21.53 and 21.54. Serpas had defeated Settle at the Pasadena Games and Dorsey Relays earlier in the season.

Settle also defeated Jones, who had posted faster qualifying marks in the 100 and 200, to place third in the 100 with a wind-aided 10.64.

Serpas edged Settle to finish second in 10.61 and Jones was fourth in 10.78 in a race won by Andre DeSaussure of Taft in 10.58. DeSaussure also won the 200 in 20.93 and 400 in 47.75 to become only the second athlete to win City titles in all three sprint races.

“I had never beaten those other homeboys before and I’ve never been that close to the guy from Taft,” Settle said. “I didn’t know what the score was, but I just felt that we were going to win--especially after we won the 400 relay.”

Mario Wilkins added a second-place finish in the triple jump, bounding 44 feet 6 inches. Desean Hester was fourth in the 110 high hurdles (15.14) and fifth in the high jump (6-4). Smith-Freeman and Awethgeth Amera added fifth-place finishes in the long jump (21-10) and 3,200 (9:42.40).

The top three in each event qualified for the State meet, which will be Friday and Saturday at Cerritos College.

Patty Trejo of Belmont was the only female athlete to repeat as City champion, winning the 3,200 meters in 11:40.28. The senior ran unchallenged after pulling away a little over 800 meters into the eight-lap race. Teammate Auria Roberto placed second in 11:50.53.

Trejo also competed in the 1,600 earlier in the meet but failed to qualify after collapsing in the final backstretch. She was running in third with 200 meters to go before slowing to a jog and falling with 50 meters to go.

“I was scared the same thing was going to happen in the 3,200,” Trejo said. “It was all up to my mind and heart to win because physically, my body felt so weak. I would slow down and pick it up. It was like a game.”

Washington sophomore Keisha Griffis won the 300 hurdles in 45.17 after defending champion Chia Mosley of Marshall stutter-stepped heading into the last hurdle.

Griffis, a City finalist at 200 meters as a freshman, took third in the 100 hurdles in 15.43. She also ran on Washington’s 400 and 1,600-meter relay teams which finished third and fourth to help lift the Generals to a third-place finish in the girls’ competition with 32 points.

University won its first girls’ title with 50 points and Gardena was second with 36. El Camino Real finished fourth with 30 points, followed by Locke with 27 and Belmont and Crenshaw in a tie for sixth with 24.

Brenda Stewart and Umekia Powns of Locke were victorious in the 800 and long jump. Stewart held off defending champion Deetra Dear of Crenshaw in the final 300 meters to win in 2:15.89 and qualify for the state meet for the fourth consecutive season.

Stewart, who won the 800 as a sophomore, finished second to Dear last season and qualified in the 1,600 as a freshman.

Charlton Jordan of Washington qualified in four events. He won the 300 intermediate hurdles in 38.71 and was third in the 110 high hurdles in 14.95. He was also a member of the Generals’ 400 and 1,600-meter relay teams.

Other winners included Bryan Clark of Fremont in the long jump with a wind-aided leap of 23-8 and Greg Jones of Locke in the shotput with a toss of 54-2.

Fred Bailon of Garfield (9:32.22) and Jaime Moreno of Roosevelt (9:36.23) squeezed into the final two qualifying spots in the 3,200 after defending champion Morris Giddens of Gardena fell with 200 meters to go after tangling legs with winner Alvaro Mejia of Birmingham (9:31.59).

Cynthia Midkiff of Fremont finished second in the 100 meters in a wind-aided 12.39 and Denise Morales of South Gate cleared 4-10 in the high jump to place third.

Mike, Marc and Jeff Adolphus--the Crenshaw triplets--and Antwon Dussett finished sixth in the 1,600-meter relay. Mike Adolphus was also sixth in the 800.