Santin Clears Personal Hurdle in City Final

Frances Santin of Taft High nailed her ultimate goal and then some Thursday night in the City Section track and field championships at Birmingham High.

Having envisioned a 43.7-second clocking in an ideal 300-meter low hurdle race all season, Santin ran 44.40 last month in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays. That was the Toreador sophomore’s best until Thursday when she ran 43.47 to win her first City title.

“I felt fast,” Santin said. “When I hit the line, I was thinking it was under 44. When I heard 43.4, I went crazy.”

Led by Santin, Taft totaled 48 points to finish third in the team standings for the second consecutive year.

Dorsey won its second title in a row with 80 points, followed by Westchester with 51. Birmingham, led by 1,600 champion Tiffany Burgess and triple jump winner Rickisha Herron, was fourth with 44.

Santin, runner-up in the 300 lows as a freshman, should thank Dorsey junior Khameel Fleming for pulling her to a time that moved her into a tie for sixth on the all-time region list.

Fleming, winner of the 100 highs earlier, opened up a five- or six-meter lead on Santin after four of eight hurdles. But when she chopped her steps approaching the fifth barrier, Santin drew close. By the time they reached the sixth hurdle, Santin was pulling away.

“I watched her real close last week and I knew she went out real fast and then died,” Santin said. “So I knew what I was doing. I wasn’t worried.”

Santin accounted for 17 1/2 points by finishing third in the 100 hurdles in 15.31 and anchoring Taft to a third-place time of 4:04.35 in the 1,600 relay, but the Toreadors were never in the hunt for the title.

They started out in good shape when sophomore Eboni Grayson finished fourth in the long jump with a leap of 16 feet 5 3/4 inches, but after a nonscoring seventh place by Taft’s Monia Calhoun in the shotput, Dorsey won three of the next five events.

Upstart Birmingham surged to a 35-22 lead over Dorsey after Burgess, a freshman, timed a career-best of 5:16.02 in the 1,600, and Herron, a senior, bounded 36 feet in the triple jump. But there was no stopping Dorsey.

Kennedy junior Jennifer Capehart cleared a career-best of 8-6 to win the pole vault.

Dorsey also won the boys’ meet, totaling 73 points to 52 1/2 for Crenshaw. It was the third title in the last four years for the Dons, who were paced by senior Clarence Scott, winner of the 100 in 10.68, the 200 in 21.36 and the long jump at 24-3 1/4. He also anchored the 400 relay team to victory in 41.56.

Monroe and El Camino Real tied for fifth with 22 points.

Monroe scored all of its points in the middle- and long-distance races. Junior Ali Bemohamed placed second in the 1,600 in 4:21.79 and second in 3,200 at 9:43.48. Senior Ted Peszynski finished third in the 800 in a career-best 1:55.57.

Taft finished third in the 1,600 relay with a season-best of 3:19.60 and Roderick Crow of El Camino Real placed a disappointing fifth in the 400 at 49.08.