Weatherspoon Soars in Sunset Finals

It’s going to take one heck of a sprinter to defeat junior Alexis Weatherspoon of Grant High in the girls’ 100 and 200 meters in the City Section track and field championships at Birmingham High on May 25.

That was abundantly clear Thursday night when Weatherspoon won the 100 in 11.5, the 200 in 23.8, the long jump in 16-6 and the triple jump in 35-1 1/4 in the Sunset League finals at Birmingham.

Weatherspoon’s times in the 100 and 200 were wind-aided but impressive because she was not challenged. She won the 100 by two seconds and the 200 by more than five.

Weatherspoon’s marks in the long jump and triple jump were well off her career bests, but those events are secondary in importance for the defending City 100 and 200 champion.

The top four finishers in each event advanced to the City preliminaries at Birmingham on Thursday.

Junior Natalie Stein of North Hollywood cruised to victories in the 800 in 2:23.4, the 1,600 in 5:21.4 and the 3,200 in 11:48.8, and ran the anchor leg on the Huskies’ 1,600 relay team that clocked 4:42.6 as the only varsity entrant in the race.

Senior Shane Hackett, defending City champion in the boys’ pole vault for Verdugo Hills, cleared 15 feet to win that event.

Valley Mission League finals--Kennedy won 19 of 30 boys’ and girls’ events at Birmingham.

Seniors Daron Taylor and John Pinson had the top performances for the Kennedy boys, while senior Shannon Perkins led the Golden Cougar girls.

Taylor won the 400 in 50.9 and ran legs on teams that won the 400 relay in 43.8 and the 1,600 relay in 3:34.0.

Pinson, who cleared a school record of 15-6 in the pole vault earlier this season, made his opening height of 13-6 to win the event by 2 1/2 feet, then missed three times at 14-6 while vaulting into a stiff wind.

Perkins won the girls’ 400 in 59.9, placed second in the 200 in a wind- aided 26.0 and ran legs on teams that won the 400 relay in 52.6 and the 1,600 relay in 4:22.7.

In other events, senior Byron Hunnicutt of Sylmar won the 100 in a wind- aided 10.9 and the 200 in a wind-aided 22.1.