DeSaussure Makes Statement : City track and field championships: Taft senior wins 400 with a time of 47.77 and says he will run in state meet after all.

Welcome to Andre DeSaussure’s world, where nothing is definite and no decision is final.

Two weeks ago, the Taft High senior talked in earnest about hanging up his track spikes after the City Section championships to begin training for football. But after winning his second consecutive 400-meter title in the City finals at Birmingham High on Thursday, DeSaussure was looking forward to next week’s state championships at Cerritos College.

“Yes. Yes. Yes. Definitely,” DeSaussure said when asked if he will run in the state meet. “I want to see what I can do against that type of competition.”

Although DeSaussure reportedly was leaning toward running in the state meet ever since he made his surprising remarks at the Northwest Valley Conference finals, his 47.77 clocking Thursday made the decision much easier.

The time is a season best by sixth-tenths of a second for DeSaussure and stamped him as a serious contender for the state title.

“I wanted to see if I could cruise a 47,” DeSaussure said. “I had been cruising 48s for the last few weeks and today I wanted to see if I could do that while running a 47.”

The answer appeared to be yes as DeSaussure clocked 22.8 for the first 200 before applying the pressure in the final straightaway.

“I felt great,” DeSaussure said. “I really hope I can win (the state title).”

While DeSaussure turned in one of the top individual performances of the boys’ meet, there was no stopping Dorsey in the team race as the Dons totaled 75 points to become the first team since Taft (1986-87) to repeat as champions.

Washington finished second with 42 points, followed by El Camino Real (40), Fairfax (34) and Birmingham (25). Granada Hills, Belmont and Roosevelt tied for sixth with 24 points.

The top three finishers in each event qualified for the state championships.

El Camino Real qualified only four athletes for the meet, but each performed well.

Paul Kokorowski and Craig Wobig finished 1-2 in the pole vault by clearing 14 feet--Kokorowski winning on the tiebreaker--and Brian Tade (56-0 1/2) and Jeff Macrea (50-8 1/4) finished 1-3 in the shotput.

Kokorowski added a third-place time of 15.09 in the 110 high hurdles.

Birmingham, which finished second, first and second the previous three years, had a disappointing meet.

James Lincoln won his second title in the last three years in the high jump with a clearance of 6-8 and placed third in the long jump (personal best of 22-8) and triple jump (44-8), but he finished a non-scoring eighth in the 110 highs (15.41) and didn’t get much support from his teammates.

Three sixes didn’t do much for the Braves.

Marvin Powell, who was nursing a pulled groin muscle, placed sixth in the 110 high hurdles, Ismael Castellanos ran sixth in the 800 and Adam Oliver was sixth in the pole vault, but Birmingham Coach Scott King expected to get higher finishes from them.

Danny Haag of Granada Hills joined Lincoln as a triple qualifier for the state championships.

Haag came from behind to win the 110 highs in 14.81, finished second in the long jump at 22-11 1/4 and placed third in the 300 intermediate hurdles with a personal-best of 38.75.

“I just had a terrible start,” Haag said of the highs. “I got out bad and just ran real tight for the first five hurdles. Luckily, I started running more relaxed in the second half of the race.”

Gardena totaled 75 points to win its first title in the girls’ meet. Dorsey and Westchester tied for second place with 47 points, followed by Hamilton at 32 and North Hollywood with 28.

The North Hollywood girls had a meet similar to the El Camino Real boys in that they garnered all of their points in three events.

Senior Darvena Merritt and sophomore Samantha Fargeon finished first and third in the shotput with personal bests. Merritt won with a throw of 43-2 and Fargeon got off a toss of 38-0 1/4.

Sophomore Brooke Page aided the Huskies with a personal best of 5 minutes 21.98 seconds to finish second in the 1,600, and added a fourth-place time of 12:07.48 in the 3,200.

Merritt entered the meet with a personal best of 42-2 in the shotput, but she bettered that mark on three of her six attempts as she produced throws of 42-10 1/2, 42-9 and 43-2 in the third, fourth and fifth rounds.

Her winning mark was the best put by a City Section athlete since Tracy Wilson of Taft registered a 45-7 effort in 1988.