Taft Girls’ Fantastic Feat Turn Tables on Dorsey in City Finals

It began with a fifth-place finish by Frances Santin in the high jump and ended with a runaway victory in the 1,600-meter relay.

Throughout the City Section track and field championships at Birmingham High on Thursday, the Taft High girls ran wild.

The Toreadors, led by seniors Eboni Grayson and Santin and sophomore Jayda Bailey, totaled a record 112 points.

Birmingham and three-time defending champion Dorsey tied for second with 53 points and Cleveland was fourth with 35.

In the boys’ meet, Dorsey totaled 91 points to win its third consecutive title and fifth in six years. Gardena was second with 50 and Taft was third with 47.

Dorsey had defeated Taft, 79-71, for the girls’ title last year, but Toreadors were unstoppable, winning seven of the 15 events.

“I’m so thankful for this,” Grayson said after she and Bailey finished 1-2 in the 200. “We have doubts sometimes, but everything just fell into place. . . . This is what we’ve been striving for since the first day of practice.”

The UCLA-bound Grayson had a hand in four victories. She won the 100 in a wind-aided 11.62, the 200 in a wind-aided 24.12, the triple jump with a meet record of 39-6 and ran the anchor leg on the 400 relay team that clocked a school-record 46.29. The mark in the triple jump broke the meet record of 38-6 1/2 that Grayson had set in the City preliminaries last week and moved her to third on the all-time region performer list.

The 46.29 time by Santin, Bailey, sophomore Deneeka Torrey and Grayson in the 400 relay moved the Toreadors to second on the all-time list behind the 45.81 region record set by a 1980 Kennedy team that included sisters Sherri, Denean and Tina Howard.

“It feels so good,” Santin said after leading Taft to a 1-3 finish in the 300 low hurdles. “Finally, we got what we really wanted.”

Santin, who will attend Cal State Northridge, won the 300 hurdles in 43.27 and placed second in the 100 highs in 14.78 in addition to clearing 5 feet in the high jump and leading off the 400 relay.

Bailey, the 1997 City champion in the 800, ran the second leg on Taft’s 400 relay team, won the 400 in a school-record 54.20, placed second in the 200 in 24.37 and anchored the victorious 1,600 relay team that clocked 3:52.72.

Torrey ran legs on both relays and placed third in the 100 in a wind-aided 11.86 and third in the 300 low hurdles in 44.63.

Heidelle Santin, Frances’ twin, placed second in the 800 in a personal best of 2:20.09 and junior Tiffany Smith finished fourth in the 400 in 57.38 as Taft topped the previous record point total of 104 set by Locke in 1990.

“I am so proud of those kids,” Taft Coach Mel Hein said.

Junior Tiffany Burgess led Birmingham by winning the 1,600 in a personal best of 5:02.74, the 800 in 2:17.89 and running the anchor leg on the Braves’ 1,600 relay team that finished sixth in 4:04.89.

The victory in the 1,600 was the third in a row for Burgess, whose smashed her previous best of 5:08.18.

Birmingham also got a victory from freshman Melissa Astete in the pole vault when she cleared 8-6 and a second-place effort from senior Ika Eliashvili in the triple jump with a season best of 37-8.

Cleveland freshman Schquay Brignac won the high jump at 5-4 and sophomore Malinda Malone placed second in the 400 with a school record of 55.44.

Taft junior Blaine Bussey had a hand in three victories in the boys’ meet. Bussey won the 400 in a personal best of 47.52 and ran legs on Taft teams that won the 400 relay in a season best 41.70 and the 1,600 relay in a school-record 3:14.49 that moved the Toreadors to fourth on the all-time region list.

El Camino Real senior Quincy Wright, who led the Conquistadores to the City 3-A Division football title last year, won the 100 in a wind-aided 10.54 and placed second in the 200 in 21.26.

Wright and Carson junior Machtier Clay had identical times of 10.54 in the 100, but the quick-starting Wright was declared the victor in a photo-finish.

William Harty of Monroe won the pole vault with a personal best of 15 feet to defeat Patrick Turner of Granada Hills, who was second with a career best of 14-7.

The top three finishers in each event advanced to the state championships at Cerritos College on June 5-6.

* PUTTING UP: Jessica Cosby of Granada Hills High, better known for her exploits on a basketball court, won her second consecutive City Section title in the shotput. C18

* ANOTHER KNIGHT: Freshman Sierra Hauser-Price is lesser known than Notre Dame schoolmate Justin Fargas, but she will run in four events in the girls’ Masters Meet today at Cerritos College. C14