Solomon Is Impressive at Stanford

Shalonda Solomon of Long Beach Poly High won the women’s 100 and 200 meters in the USA Track & Field Junior championships for those 19 and under at Stanford.

Solomon, who will be a senior in the fall at Long Beach Poly, was selected female co-athlete of the meet after posting winning times of 23.37 seconds in the 200 on Saturday and 11.40 in the 100 on Sunday.

Molly Huddle, who will be a sophomore at Notre Dame, shared athlete-of-the-meet honors with Solomon after setting a meet record of 9:19.52 in the 3,000 on Sunday.

The top two finishers in each event qualified for the U.S. team that will compete in the Pan-American Junior Games in Bridgetown, Barbados, on July 25-27.

MacKenzie Hill, a recent graduate of Long Beach Wilson, and Sharon Day, a recent graduate of Costa Mesa, also qualified for the U.S. team in individual events.

Hill, who has signed with UCLA, placed second in the women’s 400 low hurdles in 58.39. Day, who has signed with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, placed second in the women’s high jump at 5 feet 10 inches.

Chaunte Howard of Georgia Tech, a former state champion at Riverside North, won the high jump at 5-11 1/4.

Jasmine Lee, who will be a senior at Long Beach Poly, placed fourth in the 400 in a school-record 52.52 and has an excellent chance of being named to the U.S. team as a member of the 1,600 relay.

Tendinitis in her throwing shoulder contributed to Billie Jo Grant’s disappointing sixth-place finish in the women’s discus.

Grant, a recent graduate of Arroyo Grande, had moved to fifth on the all-time national performer list with a throw of 183-6 earlier this year. But the defending junior champion had a best of 162-4 on Sunday.

“It was very disappointing,” Grant said. “Because second place was only [166-11]. That’s a distance that’s not hard for me to reach when I’m throwing well.”

-- John Ortega

The Chatsworth girls’ volleyball team has been put on a year of probation and its paid coaches must sit out the first two matches of the 2003 season for violating City Section rules on out-of-season contact during the school year.

-- Eric Sondheimer