Patriots Win First Boys’ Title Since 1992

“There is no defense in track.”

Tom Stevenson, the former football and track coach at Woodland Hills Taft High, made that statement midway through the City Section track and field championships at Van Nuys Birmingham on Thursday and the host Patriots proved it by rolling to their first section boys’ title since 1992.

Taft, the two-time defending champion, set a section record with a 40.74-second clocking in the 400-meter relay and Toreador senior Justin Tryon won the 400 in a career-best 47.25, the fastest time in the state this year.

But Birmingham had too much depth for Taft.

The Patriots, led by junior Damian Rinaldi’s winning times of 1 minute 56.66 seconds in the 800 and 4:25.44 in the 1,600, won six events and scored points in 11 of 15 events.

“I felt confident coming into the meet,” Birmingham Coach Scott King said. “I felt confident we would come through, but I didn’t expect us to come through as much as we did.”

Junior Dennis Keyes and senior Jhad Jones, two relatively unknown hurdlers, played a big part in Birmingham’s second City title.

Keyes and Jones placed first and third in the 110 high hurdles with times of 14.82 and 15.35. They reversed that order in the 300 intermediates with times of 39.22 and 40.08.

Taft totaled a whopping 60 points in the sprints and relays, but couldn’t overtake Birmingham.

Toreador junior Noah Smith posted career bests of 10.70 and 21.35 in winning the 100 and 200 and ran the second leg on the 400 relay team that broke the City record of 40.88 set by a Quincy Watts-anchored Taft squad in 1987.

Tryon, in addition to crushing his previous best of 48.02, anchored the state-leading 400 relay team and the winning 1,600 relay that timed 3:13.96.

Reseda Cleveland won its first section title in the girls’ meet with a 113-96 victory over defending champion Birmingham. The Cavaliers’ point total broke the previous record of 112 set by Taft in 1998.

Senior Michelle Stinnette of Cleveland won the 100 and 200 with career bests of 12.03 and 24.63, respectively. She also ran legs on the 400 relay that clocked a school-record 47.02 and the 1,600 relay that finished second to Birmingham in 3:51.36.

Fellow senior Brynne Steward ran on both Cleveland relay teams and led the Cavaliers to 1-2 finishes in the 100 high hurdles and 300 lows with times of 14.78 and 45.29, respectively.

Birmingham had the highest point total ever for a second-place team.

In addition to winning the 1,600 relay in 3:49.60, the Patriots got victories from senior Michelle Rivera in the pole vault, junior Vincetta Mendola in the long jump and junior Ellen Shepstone in the shotput.