It Rained on the State Track Parade : Preps: Most area coaches were bitter over the decision to cancel the meet.

With eight qualifiers, the Morningside High girls’ track and field team entered Saturday’s State finals at Cerritos College with a chance of contending for a championship.

But the Monarchs never received the opportunity to compete.

After heavy rains, officials decided to cancel the meet because of wet grounds.

It marked the first time the meet has been canceled because of weather in its 75-year history. The only previous cancellations were because of World War II from 1942-45.

The cancellation left a bitter feeling with most of the participants.

“For the individuals, the coaches and the athletes, I’m sure it’s a great disappointment because this was the event that everyone was pointing toward,” Morningside Coach Ron Tatum said. “It’s something everyone was thinking about and it was our goal all season to get here and now it’s not going to be held.

“It kind of leaves you with an empty feeling, especially for the seniors because they’ll never know where they stood and they won’t have a chance to win a title.”

With his girls’ qualifiers and four boys’ who also advanced, Morningside was expected to be make the strongest showing among area teams.

In Friday’s preliminaries, senior LaShawn Stringer was the second-fastest qualifier in the 400-meter dash, freshman Nicole Thomas was second in the 300 hurdles and the Monarchs won their heats to advance in the 400 and 1,600 relays.

For the boys, senior Edward Turner qualified in three events--the 100, 200 and long jump--and was a member of the Monarchs’ 1,600 relay team. He had finished third in qualifying in the 200 (21.17 seconds) and long jump (23-10 1/2).

Other area athletes scheduled to participate in the finals included Morris Giddens of Gardena in the 1,600, Dan Minami of Peninsula in the 3,200 and Leandrew Childs of Inglewood in the long jump.

Minami and Childs went into the finals with the state’s best marks. Minami won the 3,200 in 9 minutes 4.13 seconds at the Masters meet last week and Childs had a best of 24-8 3/4 in the long jump.

Giddens had the fifth-best time of 4:16.22 in 1,600 prelims.

“It hurts me and it really hurts Morris,” Gardena assistant Kevin Hughley said. “I know he went home and he was just disgusted and I can’t blame him because I feel the same way.”