Thomas Leads Dorsey Girls to Team Title : Track: Dons edge Washington for the City Section team title as six Dorsey girls--only one a senior--qualify for the individual finals.

The Dorsey High girls’ track and field team qualified six athletes for the City Section finals.

Janice Thomas, though, was about all the Dons needed to wrap up their second team title in four years Thursday at Birmingham High. The sophomore sprinter won the 100 and 200 meters and had a hand in 38 of Dorsey’s 63 1/2 points.

The Dons also claimed the team title in 1992. Washington was second with 56 points, followed by Taft and Westchester with 41 and 38 points.

Thomas won the 100 meters in 12.35 seconds, beating Hamilton’s LaTroya Mucker by .01 of a second, and came back to win defeat Mucker in the 200, 25.07 to 25.32. Thomas also anchored the 400-meter relay team that included LaTavia Savage, Khamel Fleming and Betty Butler to a second-place finish in 48.27.

Still, Dorsey trailed Washington, 56-53 1/2, entering the final event, the 1,600 relay, and needed to finish fourth or better to clinch the title over its Southern Pacific Conference rival, which did not have a team in the race.

“I told them if they dropped the baton to pick it up and make sure we finished,” Dorsey Coach Paul Knox said. “We were keeping score the whole way. I knew we had to take fourth and I wanted to make sure we didn’t get disqualified.”

Knox’s concerns proved unfounded. Savage gave the Dons the lead for good with a 59.8 opening leg. Fleming and Butler followed with 58.5 and 59.7 legs and Thomas clocked 59.9 as the Dons were never threatened by runner-up Taft (4:03.95).

“We were nervous. When you come out here with six girls, you have to do everything right,” Thomas said. “No bad handoffs. No attitudes. Nothing. We had a rough season, but look where it got us.”

Butler added a second-place finish in the 800 (2:19.43) while Savage was fourth in the 200 (25.80) and third in the 400 (58.4). Mia Jones, who was sixth in the 400 (1:01.66), cleared 5-0 to finish third in the high jump, with Grace Smart tying for sixth at 4-10.

Smart is the lone senior for Dorsey. Butler is a junior, Fleming and Jones are sophomores and Savage is a freshman. The Dorsey sextet’s efforts, however, were barely enough to overcome the Washington duo of Keisha Griffis and Zunilda Ogarro.

Griffis won the 300-meter low hurdles for the third year in a row, winning in 45.68 despite a leg cramp. The senior also ran 15.37 to win the 100-meter high hurdles in 15.37, finished fourth in the 100 (12.79) and anchored the Generals’ 400 relay of Kizzy Veazey, Ogarro, and Christina Tucker to first in 48.19.

Ogarro, a freshman, spanned 18-3 to win the long jump by 11 inches and finished third in the 100 and 300 hurdles in 15.68 and 48.87.

The top three finishers in each event advanced to the State meet Friday and Saturday at Cerritos College. LaGunda Gilmore of Fremont and Tanisha Hunter of Locke were winners in the 800 (2:19.39) and shot put (41-2).

In the boys’ competition, Westchester won its first title with 46 points. Fremont and Crenshaw tied for second with 32 and two-time defending champion Dorsey was fourth with 31 points.

Fremont’s Clarence Scott won the long jump (24-9). Bobby Jones of Manual Arts won the 400 in 48.39 and Michael Curry of Marshall was first in the shot put with a heave of 53-4.

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In the Southern Section Divisional finals May 20 at Cerritos College, Michael Granville of Bell Gardens won his second consecutive Division I 800-meter title, running 11:49.65 for the meet’s fastest mark.

Loyola, led by second-place finishes by Brian Duff in the 800 (1:55.21) and Matt Pentecost in the discus (163-1), was second in the Division III team competition behind Morningside.