Sallberg Has Others Chasing : Track and field: He finally beats Serratos, wins steeplechase at State championships.

Jacques Sallberg of Glendale College overcame the elements and three previous setbacks to Ramon Serratos of Canyons to win the 3,000-meter steeplechase in the State junior college track and field championships at Bakersfield College Saturday.

Running in 90-degree heat, Sallberg timed 9 minutes 22.47 seconds to become the first Glendale runner to win the event since the meet’s inception in 1951.

Jose Arriaga of East Los Angeles was second in 9:26.14 and Serratos, who defeated Sallberg to win at the Western State Conference and Southern California preliminaries and championship meets, was third in 9:37.62.

“I knew Serratos would be up there and I knew the guy from East L.A. would be in front,” said Sallberg, who came back three hours later to finish fourth in the 5,000 meters in 15:24.46.

“I knew if I didn’t go out too fast, I was confident I would be able to catch them no matter how far ahead they were because of the heat.”

Serratos shared the early lead with Hartnell’s Leonardo Fernandez, with Sallberg content to run in fourth through the first four circuits of the 7 1/2-lap race.

Arriaga assumed the lead with just over three laps remaining and extended his lead to as much as 25 meters with a lap and a half to go.

Sallberg trailed Arriaga by 15 meters entering the final lap but pulled even at the water jump with 150 meters remaining and surged away on the final straightaway.

In a matchup of the state’s top junior college 800 meter runners, Brian Wilkinson of Hartnell held off Isaac Turner of Glendale, 1:51.19 to 1:51.42.

Turner was boxed in early in the nine-runner field but worked his way to Wilkinson’s side at 300 meters. The two shared the lead through 400 meters and passed in 56 seconds before Wilkinson edged ahead on the final curve.

“I wanted to run at least 53 seconds for the first 400, but after I got boxed in it was too much to make up by 300 meters,” said Turner, the Glendale school record-holder at 1:49.93. “I had to run on the outside of the lane and that cost me.”

The Glendale men, led by Sallberg’s victory and Turner’s second-place finish along with Adrian Baca’s sixth place in the steeplechase (9:50.99), were 10th in the team competition with 26 points.

Long Beach became the first school to win men’s and women’s titles in the same year. The Viking men won with 84 points to win a share of their 12th title in 17 years. The Long Beach women, buoyed by Cavetra Mitchell’s victories in the 100 and 200, won their first title with 127 points, outdistancing Riverside and San Francisco.

Ventura’s Kris McLucas won the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in 52.38 and former Quartz Hill High standout Jamaal Chase, competing at College of the Redwoods, was third in the triple jump (49-8) after winning the long jump Friday.

George Daniels of Antelope Valley timed 48.03 to finish third in the 400 meters and teamed with Mike Blankenship, Ken Hopson and Craig Kelley on the Marauders’ 400-meter relay team, which was fourth in 40.72.

Heather Hanger of Moorpark finished fifth with 3,894 points in the heptathlon, turning in the second-best marks in the 200 (26.75) and 800 (2:33.43).

Jennifer Overlock of Canyons was fifth in the 1,500 in 4:47.92. Moorpark’s Justin Burnett was sixth in the decathlon (6,016 points) and Ventura’s Josefina Sanchez was sixth in the 3,000 (10:38.25).