CITY SECTION TRACK & FIELD PRELIMS : Lee Finds His Match and Then Some

Charles Lee of Cleveland High finally ran into a City Section sprinter who finishes as strong--or stronger--than he does in the City prelims at Birmingham High on Thursday.

The Cleveland senior ran down fast-starting Jerry Brown of Taft to win his heat in the 100 meters with a personal best of 10.4 seconds, but he could not do the same thing to Fremont junior Clarence Scott in the 200.

Scott, who posted a nation-leading mark of 25 feet 4 1/2 inches in the long jump earlier in the day, had a three-meter lead on Lee coming off the turn and hung on to record a personal best of 21.29, edging Lee’s personal best 21.44.

“He was just stronger than I was, that’s it,” Lee said. “He ran a good curve and a strong straightaway. He did a good job of holding his form. I kind of lost mine.”

Although Lee was disappointed by his loss in the 200, he can take solace in the fact that it moved him into a tie for eighth on the all-time region list. His 100 time moved him into a tie for seventh.

He also anchored the Cavaliers to victories in relay heats of the 400 (region-leading 42.10) and 1,600 (3 minutes 25.55 seconds) to qualify for next Thursday’s City championships in four events.

Steve Williams of San Fernando and Moses Backus of Taft also advanced in four events while Ryan Jones of North Hollywood, Melinda George of Chatsworth and Brandi Page of Granada Hills each won a pair of qualifying heats.

Williams had the second-best qualifying mark in the triple jump (46-9), was fourth in the 100 high hurdles (15.25) and long jump (wind-aided 23-1 1/2) and cleared 6-2 in the high jump.

Backus had the second-fastest time in the 400 (48.89), the fourth-fastest in the 200 (personal best 21.66) and ran anchor legs on relay teams that ran 42.85 in the 400 and 3:25.89 in the 1,600.

Jones had the leading time in the 110 high hurdles (14.75) and the third-fastest in the 300 intermediates (40.39). Page posted personal bests of 5:20.21 in the 1,600 and 11:43.61 to lead qualifiers in those events. George led qualifying in the girls’ 800 with a personal-best and region-leading time of 2:17.75 and timed 5:23.78 in the 1,600.