Felix Selected Girls’ Track Athlete of Year

Sprinter Allyson Felix of North Hills Los Angeles Baptist High was named Gatorade’s national girls’ track and field athlete of the year on Tuesday, continuing the Southland’s domination of the award.

Felix, who will attend USC in the fall, was also named The Times’ girls’ track and field athlete of the year after she won her third title in a row in the 100 meters and her second in a row in the 200 at the state championships earlier this month.

At the U.S. track and field championships last weekend in Palo Alto, Felix’s third-place finish in the 200 meters qualified her for the U.S. team that will compete in the world championships in Paris from Aug. 23-31. She became the first high school athlete to make a U.S. Olympic or world championship team since 1980.

Olympic sprinter and long jumper Marion Jones won the national award three consecutive years while attending Oxnard Rio Mesa in 1991 and Thousand Oaks in 1992 and ’93.

Other Southland winners include sprinter Angela Williams (Chino) in 1998, sprinter Kinsasha Davis (Long Beach Wilson) in 1997, distance runner Kim Mortensen (Thousand Oaks) in 1996, sprinter Joanna Hayes (Riverside North) in 1995, sprinter Angela Burnham (Rio Mesa) in 1989 and sprinter Janeene Vickers (Pomona) in 1987.

Ian Stewart, a senior third baseman for Westminster La Quinta, has been chosen state player of the year and senior of the year by Cal-Hi Sports.

Stewart, selected No. 10 in the recent amateur draft by the Colorado Rockies, edged Camarillo’s Delmon Young, the No. 1 pick by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, to gain the state’s top individual baseball honor. Young received the award last year.

The Times’ baseball player of the year, Stewart hit 16 home runs and drove in 61 runs to set Orange County records and led La Quinta to a 30-2 record and the Southern Section Division IV championship. He finished with a state record for career RBIs with 170 and had 40 homers, which is No. 4 on the all-time state list.

Teammate Cole Garner, who played three seasons at Artesia, is No. 3 on the state home run list at 42.

Stewart signed with the Rockies last week and left Saturday for the team’s rookie league team in Casper, Wyo.

Other Cal-Hi player of the year honors went to Young (large schools), El Cajon Christian’s Brian Schroeder (small schools), San Mateo Serra’s Chuck Lofgren (top junior), San Diego Rancho Bernardo’s Johnny Drennen (top sophomore) and West Hills Chaminade’s Casey Haerther (top freshman).

Del Mar Torrey Pines High, which won nine San Diego Section titles, has been selected school of the year by Cal-Hi Sports for its all-around athletic excellence.

The Falcons, who won section titles in boys’ and girls’ cross-country, girls’ volleyball, girls’ golf, girls’ tennis, girls’ field hockey, girls’ soccer, boys’ golf and boys’ lacrosse, broke Long Beach Poly’s two-year hold on the award.

Cal-Hi also selected winners for each of the state’s enrollment divisions. Santa Ana Mater Dei won in Division II, San Jose Mitty in Division III, Bakersfield Garces in Division IV and San Francisco University in Division V.

Among schools receiving honorable mention were Los Angeles Loyola and Long Beach Poly and Long Beach Wilson in Division I, North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake and Torrance Bishop Montgomery in Division III and Westlake Village Oaks Christian in Division IV.

-- Bob Rohwer