Palmdale Win Easy as 1-2-3 : Track: Falcons end Quartz Hill’s lock on Golden League title with comeback over Littlerock.

As pep talks go, it was short and simple.

But for effect, one would be hard-pressed to beat what Palmdale Coach Steve Wilson said to Kadrina Coffee, Monique Nolan and Natasha Robinson prior to the 400-meter dash in Thursday’s Golden League track meet between the Falcons and visiting Littlerock.

Palmdale trailed by four points early in the meet after Littlerock’s Cheree Hicks upset the Falcons’ Kristi Rose in the discus. Wilson wanted to stop the Lobos’ momentum and he knew that a 1-2-3 finish in the one-lap event would do the trick.

“I told them that Kristi had lost and that we needed to pick it up,” Wilson said.

“We needed a sweep.”

His charges, led by Coffee’s victorious time of 57.5 seconds, did as told and the Falcons (6-0, 5-0 in the league) rolled to an 88-48 victory to earn their first league title since 1988.

“It would’ve been nice to have beaten Quartz Hill to win the league title,” Wilson said. “But I’m not complaining,”

Quartz Hill won consecutive league titles from 1989-94, but Palmdale was the preseason favorite this year.

The Falcons had a host of quality sprinters to go along with senior high-jumper/triple-jumper Sarah Phelps, senior hurdler Kristine Bostick and Rose, fourth in the discus in last year’s Southern Section Division I championships.

Phelps, Bostick and Rose combined for 26 1/2 points against Littlerock and the Falcons’ youngsters took care of much of the rest.

Phelps cleared 5 feet 2 inches to win the high jump and bounded a wind-aided 32-3 to finish second in the triple jump to sophomore teammate Edneisha Curry (34-2).

Bostick, working her way back into shape after missing three weeks with a bruised heel, won the 100 high hurdles in 17.6 and the 300 lows in 47.8. She also anchored Palmdale’s victorious 400 and 1,600 relay teams to times of 50.3 and 4 minutes 28.3 seconds.

Rose placed second in the discus (114-1) and shotput (31-7 1/2).

In other events, sophomore Trinisha Holmes won the 100 in a wind-aided 12.3 and Curry took the 800 in 2:35.0 after Coffee was forced to drop out with an asthma attack after the first lap.

Hicks won the shotput (38-5) and discus (129-0) for Littlerock (4-1, 4-1), but the Lobos lacked the depth to keep pace.

In the boys’ meet, Antonio Arce won three events to lead Palmdale to a 82-53 win.

Arce, the 1994 state Division II cross-country champion, cruised to times of 2:05.6 in the 800, 4:34.1 in the 1,600 and 10:22.3 in the 3,200 for the Falcons (5-1, 4-1).