TRACK : Granville Shatters National Record in 800 Meters

Another race, another record for Michael Granville.

The Bell Gardens High School sophomore set his second national record of the season in the National Interscholastic Indoor track and field championships in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.

Granville, 16, won the 800 meters in 1 minute, 51.11 seconds to smash the six-year sophomore record of 1:54.28 held by Steve Adderly of Del Ray Beach, Fla.

The meet record was less than a second off the all-time high school record of 1:50.7 and ranks as the third-fastest ever.

For his performance, Granville was selected the boys’ outstanding athlete of the March 12 meet.

Granville overtook Milt Campbell of Atlanta with 300 meters left in the race and blew by him on the final turn of the 200-meter track. Campbell, who entered the meet with the country’s fastest 800 indoor time of the season, was second in a personal best 1:52.64.

“I closed my eyes and shot past him in the last 100 meters,” said Granville, holder of the national freshman 800 record of 1:51.03. “At that point, I was so happy because I had won the race. I saw the clock at 1:45 with 50 meters left and I knew I could get the sophomore record. That’s when I really started flying.”

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Janet Hill of Cal State Los Angeles won the shotput for the second year in a row at the NCAA Division II indoor national championships in Fargo, N.D.

Hill, the defending outdoor national champion in the shotput and discus, was shy of her meet record of 52 feet, 6 1/2 inches set in 1993. But the senior’s put of 49-10 was enough to outdistance Dusty Cover of Ashland by 8 1/2 inches.

Marisa Avendano was fourth in the 1,500, timing 4:31.98, and Marisol Pedraza was sixth in the 800 in 2:15.11 to lead the Golden Eagles to an eighth-place showing in the March 11-12 team competition with 15 points.

Genet Gorgis and Marisol Cossio, transfer students from Trade Tech and Los Angeles City College, finished seventh in the 1,500 in 4:39.59 and seventh in the 5,000 in 17:27.50 to earn All-America honors for Cal State L.A., which has placed among the top eight for the past four years.

Abilene Christian won its sixth title in seven years with 78 points, followed by Norfolk State and St. Augustine’s with 42 and 25 points.

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Jim Hurtado and Oscar Urizar of Cal State L.A. won the shotput and 3,000-meter steeplechase with marks of 47-2 1/2 and 9:56.8 in a March 12 triangular meet with Cal State Long Beach and host USC.

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Jason Barreda and Dan Baumeister led Loyola sweeps in the 800 and pole vault to pace the visiting Cubs to their 40th consecutive victory in an 80-47 Mission League win against Harvard-Westlake Thursday.

Barreda timed 1:58.8 in the 800 and also won the 1,600 in 4:26.3. Baumeister, who has cleared 14-6 this season, vaulted 13-9 to remain undefeated in league.

Brian Duff won the 400 in 50.6 and joined Damon Hamilton, Jorge Castilla and Edward Opuku on Loyola’s 1,600-meter relay team, which held on for a 0.9-second victory in 3:30.3.

Joshua Bell won the 110 high hurdles (17.2) and 300 intermediates (44.0) and Franciso Paredes won the long jump and triple jump with marks of 21-10 and 43-0.