Dynamic Duo Race to Finals : Track and field: Cleveland’s Lee dominates the track and San Fernando’s Williams owns the field in Northwest Valley meet.

As juniors, Charles Lee of Cleveland High and Steve Williams of San Fernando were relatively unknown track and field athletes at Sherman Oaks CES and Monrovia High, respectively.

Friday, they stamped themselves as City Section title contenders in several events in the Northwest Valley Conference finals at Birmingham High.

Lee ran 10.7 seconds in the 100 meters and 21.5 in the 200 to turn back loaded fields in those events. He also anchored the Cavaliers to victory in the 400 relay with a region-leading and school-record time of 42.1 and placed third in the long jump at 20 feet 10 inches.

Williams set personal bests in winning the long jump (21-10), triple jump (region-leading 47-7) and high jump (6-7), and finished second behind Birmingham’s Marvin Powell in the 110 high hurdles, 14.9-15.1.

The top five finishers in each event advanced to the City prelims Thursday at Birmingham.

Although Lee’s times were slower than his wind-aided 10.6 and 21.2 efforts in last week’s prelims, he was happy with the times. This time, he was running into a stiff breeze.

“I didn’t feel as strong as I thought I would coming off the turn (in the 200),” Lee said. “I could have run the curve a little better, but you can always find room for improvement. . . . I just want to get in a race when it’s 80 or 90 degrees with just a little bit of a tail wind. It was too cold for good times today.”

Lee finished strong in both the 100 and 200.

He was third behind teammate Russel Burwell and Kennedy’s Gavin Hooper after the first 60 meters of the 100, but he caught the pair at 70 meters and won going away as Burwell timed 10.9 and Hooper clocked 11.0.

Taft’s Moses Backus, who won the 400 in a personal best of 48.5, trailed Lee by only a couple of feet coming off the turn in the 200, but he couldn’t keep pace over the final 70 meters and was second in 21.8.

“I was just concentrating on what I had to do in the 200,” Lee said. “I wasn’t worrying about what people were saying in the stands or what was going on. I wanted to stay focused.”

In a scene reminiscent of the 1988 City finals in which Washington’s Bryan Bridgewater defeated Taft’s Quincy Watts in a much-anticipated 200, some spirited wagering was conducted about the outcome of the Lee-Backus showdown.

The field events generally don’t attract as much attention as the sprints so Williams didn’t get his due until the end of the meet. The high jump was the last event.

Williams, who added 2 1/2 feet to his personal best in the triple jump, tied his best in the high jump by clearing 6 feet, clinched the title by making 6-4, and added additional clearances at 6-5, 6-6 and 6-7 before missing at 6-8.

The triple jump and the high jump are the events in which he appears capable of challenging for the City title.

“This is a big one,” Williams said.

“This is my first time that I have really excelled in all of the events at the same time.”

Williams’ triple-jump performance was doubly impressive because it came against a stiff breeze.

“I think I can go 50 feet before the season is over,” he said.

“I really do. This is really only my first year of competing in the jumping events.”

The performances of Lee and Williams overshadowed some fine performances by Shaluana Brock of Birmingham, Neisha Henderson of Cleveland and Francis Santin of Taft in the girls’ meet.

Brock won the 100 in 12.5, the 200 in a personal best of 25.2 and ran legs on the victorious 1,600 (4 minutes 9.1 seconds) and second-place 400 relay (49.4) teams.

Henderson won the long jump and triple jump with wind-aided marks of 17-8 1/2 and 37-6 1/2, respectively, while Santin won the 300 low hurdles in a personal best of 46.5 and placed third in the 1,600 with another best of 5:30.9.

Melinda George of Chatsworth used a strong finish to win the 1,600 in a personal best of 5:17.0 and the 800 in 2:29.7.

She out-kicked her twin sister Pamela (2:30.1) in the 800.