For Morningside, the Magic Number at State Meet Is 5

Only five members strong, the Morningside girls’ track and field team are quite a formidable force.

On Friday night, the quintet qualified for the State meet in seven events at the Masters Meet at Cerritos College. The Monarchs will be bidding for their second State title in three seasons.

Joronda White was feeling a little tired before the 1,600-meter relay after running in the 400 and 400 relay.

No problem.

Tai-Ne Gibson, who had already qualified with fifth-place finishes in the 100 and 200 in 11.92 and 24.24 seconds, was promptly pressed into service.

Gibson posted a 55.4-second leg as Morningside ran away to win in 3 minutes 44.93 seconds--the third-fastest time by a California team this decade.

Morningside also turned in the No. 2 time of 3:44.16 to win at the 1990 State meet. Oakland Skyline ran the top time of 3:43.0 at the Sacramento Meet of Champions earlier this month.

“We decided to give (White) a rest to see what I can do tonight and qualify for state,” Gibson said. “It’s kind of creative to switch things around once in awhile because no one gets used to running one leg. It keeps everyone guessing.”

The outcome, though, was never in doubt.

Running in the sixth lane, freshman Nicole Thomas made up the stagger on the backstretch with a 56.1 leg before handing off to Gibson, who stretched the Morningside lead to 10 meters over Long Beach Poly.

Felisha Williams and LaShawn Stringer, a member of the Monarchs’ 1990 state champion 1,600 relay team, followed with 56.8 and 55.6 legs to secure the victory.

Long Beach Poly and Arcadia were second and third in 3:50.80 and 3:54.39.

“We could have probably run a little faster if we were well rested,” Stringer said. “Other teams have pretty good-sized teams and we have only five. That makes it kind of hard if one person gets hurt. If two people get injured, it’s all over.”

Stringer also won the 400 in 54.80. White and Williams were fourth and fifth in 56.13 and 56.31.

The three also teamed with Gibson on Morningside’s 400 relay team that finished second in 45.75 to Long Beach Poly. The top five finishers in each event advanced to the State meet Friday and Saturday at Cerritos.

At the Southern Section Division championships on May 22, Stringer, White and Williams took the first three places in the 400. They also joined Thomas on Morningside’s victorious 1,600 relay team, which ran a division record 3:47.64 to propel Morningside to the Division III title--the Monarchs’ fourth Southern Section title in a row.

Thomas broke her school record by .46 seconds to win the 300 hurdles in 43.40. She also was fourth in the 100 hurdles in 15.11.

“We’ve been truly blessed,” Morningside sprint Coach John Estrada said. “With five people and the size of the school, what we did was logistically impossible.”

Edward Turner of Morningside fared pretty well on his own Friday night.

He won the long jump with a leap of 23-feet-6 3/4 on his fourth and last jump of the competition. He also edged Bryan Howard of Canyon Springs to win the 200 in 21.07 and was second in the 100 in 10.75.

Turner also brought the Monarch 1,600 relay team of Ray Butler, Lamar Reed and Eric Polland from sixth to second with a 45.8 anchor leg. Foothill won in 3:15.09, followed by Morningside and Muir in 3:15.43 and 3:16.23.

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Having a good time: Dan Minami of Peninsula had a fairly simple objective at the Masters--make it to State in the 3,200. The senior accomplished that, but in the process turned in the fastest time in the state to win in 9:04.13.

Minami shaved nearly 12 seconds off his previous best and school record 9:16.03 in placing second in the Southern Section finals. He clocked a 62.7 final 400 to hold off Margarito Casillas of Hoover by .01 seconds.

Casillas had run 9:06.92 to defeat Minami to win the Division I title at the Southern Section championships.

“We came in almost hugging and on top of each other, I wasn’t sure who won,” Minami said. “I wanted to qualify and that’s what this meet is all about. The pace felt comfortable, but if I was ahead of (Casillas) I knew the time must have been down there.”

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Start spreading the news: Word of the Redondo baseball team’s extra-inning playoff heroics was no secret to Lompoc starter Seth Bean before Friday’s Division II quarterfinal game at Redondo.

The Sea Hawks rallied to take Lompoc (23-4) and the UCLA-bound Bean into extra innings before falling, 6-4, in eight innings. Jason Way doubled home the decisive run and another run came in on a bases-loaded walk with two outs in the top of the eighth.

“I was nervous out there and I wasn’t getting anything over,” said Bean (10-1), who pitched his 10th complete game. “I didn’t think I would last two innings, maybe six at the most. I knew they had come back and wanted to shut them down.

Redondo (20-10) had overcome deficits in two of its three previous playoff victories.

The Sea Hawks scored five runs in the seventh inning to defeat Troy, 9-7, on a home run by Scott Albin the eighth inning in the first round. In a second-round game on Tuesday, Redondo came back from a 5-0 deficit to beat Valencia, 7-6, on a solo home run by Rick Janssen with two outs in the bottom of the eighth.

The Sea Hawks were also well aware of Bean’s credentials, who struck out 10 and retired the final 10 Redondo batters in a row. He also worked out of bases-loaded jams in second and fifth innings.

“We heard he threw 92 (miles per hour), but he didn’t impress me much,” said Rawson, who hit a two-run home run off Bean in the first. “He was hittable and within our reach. We had the scoring opportunities we just didn’t get them.”

The Braves jumped to a 4-0 lead only to have Redondo, which had won 17 of its last 20 games, rally to tie the score in the fifth on a single by Ken Keating.

Pat Mills scored from third after Bean threw the ball into center field on a pick-off attempt at second base to bring Redondo to within 4-3.

“This was only a small difference today, it was only four runs,” Redondo Coach Tim Ammentorp said jokingly. “I don’t know if our intensity picks up when we’re behind or not. We just come to battle because when we’ve gotten ahead and run away with a couple of games too.”

Notes

Kamara Mayberry of St. Bernard was third in the 800 meters at the Masters Meet in 2 minutes 13.16 seconds to earn her second berth in the State meet. Mayberry, a junior, finished second in State as a freshman but failed to qualify for last year’s Masters Meet. . . . Leandrew Childs of Inglewood was third in the long jump with a mark of 23-feet-3 1/4. . . . Kim Blankinship of Torrance and Nikki Lawson of Mira Costa advanced in the triple jump. Blankinship cleared 5-8, along with Newport Harbor’s Tina Bowman and Kayla Ross, but was third on misses. Lawson bounded 38-1 3/4 to finish fourth. . . . The Leuzinger 400 relay team of Jason Simmons, Will Moreland, Jason Sharp and Carlos Taylor squeezed into fourth in 42.85 after Dominguez’s Zachary Sworpshire dropped the baton after being bumped in the exchange zone by Muir’s Gerald Stamps. A brief scuffle between Muir and Dominguez erupted on the warm-up field after the race.

Alex DeCret of Santa Barbara defeated Loren Peters of Peninsula, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, in the final of the Southern Section boys’ singles tennis championship at Seacliff Country Club in Huntington Beach Saturday. Peters beat DeCret to win last year’s championship. The two will meet again Wednesday as top-seeded Santa Barbara (22-1) will play second-seeded Peninsula (24-0) in the Southern Section Division I team title at Knowlwood Tennis Club in Montecito. The Dons, seeking their eighth Southern Section championship in nine seasons, defeated Peninsula, 13-5, in the 4-A final last season to win its fifth consecutive title.

Mark Kotsay hit two home runs and pitched a two-hitter in Santa Fe’s 5-2 victory over West Torrance in a Southern Section Division III playoff game Friday at West. Kotsay (11-0), 6-foot senior left-hander who will attend Cal State Fullerton, struck out 10 and did not give up a hit for the first five innings.

Twins Jill and Jennifer Greb will walk-on at UC Santa Barbara to play soccer and volleyball. Jill set Southern Section records for most saves in a season (197) and a match (34) this season. The 5-foot-10 goalkeeper was named to the Pioneer League first team, playing her first season of soccer after a two-year layoff to concentrate on volleyball. Jennifer, a 5-10 outside hitter, who was recruited by Gonzaga, Wichita State and Idaho State was a two-time All Pioneer League selection.

Frank Zeno and Josh Branca of Mira Costa will attend El Camino College to play basketball and teammate John Murphy will play at Santa Monica College. Zeno, a 6-5 center, was a second-team Times’ South Bay selection, averaging 15.2 points a game. Branca, a 6-0 guard, averaged 4.9 assists. . . . Aaron Willett of El Segundo has made an unwritten commitment to play basketball at Adams State in Colorado. A 6-3 guard, Willett averaged 8.4 rebounds.