Long Beach Wilson Girls Repeat

The surge began with a second- and third-place finish in the 400 meters and ended with a second-place effort in the 1,600 relay.

And in between, the Long Beach Wilson High girls’ team ran wild in the Southern Section divisional track and field championships at Cerritos College in Norwalk on Saturday.

Wilson, the co-defending state girls’ champion with Long Beach Poly, edged Riverside J.W. North, 72-68, for its second consecutive Division I title and third in four years when the Bruins finished second in the 1,600 relay in 3:49.53 and North finished fourth in 3:53.66.

The two teams each had 64 points entering the final running event of the meet.

Wilson was a solid favorite to win the Division I title two weeks ago, but when the Bruins’ defending champion 400-relay team dropped the baton in the preliminaries at Long Beach City College on May 15, J.W. North moved into the team-title picture.

“I told the girls that we were still in the driver’s seat,” Coach Terry Kennedy of Wilson said. “We just had to go out and perform like we knew we were capable of.”

Wilson was tied for 10th place with six points after the first four events, but the Bruins won four of the next five events to take a 64-49 lead over J.W. North with six events left.

Sophomore Lashinda Demus and senior Joni Smith began Wilson’s run by finishing second and third in the 400 with times of 53.09 and 54.50.

Senior Latrice Borders followed that with a winning time of 11.88 in the 100 and senior teammate Kim Gildersleeve won the 800 in 2:11.66.

Demus, who finished third in the 100 high hurdles in 14.11 earlier in the meet, won the 300 low hurdles in a yearly state-leading time of 41.44 and Borders took the 200 in a wind-aided 23.54.

“I really wanted to win [the 100 and 200],” said Borders, who has signed with the University of Texas. “Angela Williams [of Chino High] owned those events for the past three years and I felt like this was my year to move up.”

North, which won four consecutive Division II titles from 1995-98, was led by junior Nichole Denby and freshman Tracee Thomas.

Denby won the 100 hurdles in 14.08, finished second in the 300 lows in 42.08 and placed fourth in the 100 in 12.05.

Thomas placed second in the 200 in a wind-aided 23.59 and third in the 100 in 12.02. They also ran legs on the 400 relay team that finished second in 46.65.

Long Beach Poly, the two-time defending state boys’ champion, won its second consecutive Division I title with a 92-41 victory over runner-up Chino.

Darrell Rideaux, the defending state champion in the 100, and Kareem Kelly, defending state champion in the 200, led Poly.

Rideaux, Kelly and fellow senior Samie Parker gave the Jackrabbits a 1-2-3 finish in the 100 with times of 10.49, 10.54 and 10.79 and Kelly and Rideaux placed second and third in the 200 behind senior Michael Mitchell of Paramount, who also won the 400.

Mitchell clocked career bests of 20.98 in the 200 and 47.18 in the 400, but he was overshadowed by junior Warren Rogers of Gardena Serra, who won Division III titles in the 100 and 200 with state-leading times of 10.42 and 20.88.