North Girls Top L.B. Wilson

SACRAMENTO — Junior Nichole Denby and freshman Tracee Thomas led Riverside J.W. North to its first girls’ title in the state track and field championships Saturday night before 16,175 at Sacramento City College.

J.W. North defeated runner-up Long Beach Wilson, 42-27.

The girls’ title race had boiled down to a two-team battle between Wilson and J.W. North after Friday’s preliminaries and both teams started the finals well.

Denby won the 100 high hurdles in a wind-aided 13.42 and also finished second in the 300 low hurdles with a time of 41.53.

Thomas placed second in the 200 in 23.31 and finished third in the 100 in 11.70.

Senior April Holliverse placed fourth in the 100 hurdles in 14.21, and senior Cari Soong cq finished third in the discus with a throw of 150 feet 2 inches to account for J.W. North’s other points.

Wilson, which tied Long Beach Poly for the title last year, was led by sophomore Lashinda Demus.

Demus won the 300 low hurdles in 40.44 and finished third in the 100 hurdles in 13.69. Senior Joni Smith placed third in the 400 in 54.33.

Demus also won on Wilson’s 1,600-meter relay team that finished first in 3:39.01/

Lauren Fleshman, a junior from Canyon Country Canyon, was a runaway winner in the 3,200 meters. Her time of 10:18.81 was the fastest in the nation this year--improving on her previous best of 10:21.36--a school record that moved her to fifth on the all-time region list and gave her a huge margin of victory over defending champion Sara Bei of Santa Rosa Montgomery.

Bei, a sophomore, finished second in 10:31.67 after placing second in the 1,600 in 4:46.71 earlier in the meet.

In the boys’ division, Vallejo upset two-time defending champion Long Beach Poly, 35-32, to win its first state title.

Poly senior Kareem Kelly won the 100 in a wind-aided 10.47 and the 200 in a wind-aided in a 20.76, but Poly was disqualified from the 400 relay for passing the baton out of the zone after finishing first in a time of 40.54.

Poly had run a state-record 40.14 in the Southern Section Masters Meet on May 28, but Darrell Rideaux and Samie Parker failed to connect in time on the second exchange and Kelly’s strong anchor leg went for naught.

Vallejo ended up winning the 400 relay in 40.94.

Rideaux finished second to Kelly in the 100 and was fourth in the 200 for the Jackrabbits.

Kelly was one of two double winners in the meet.

The other was senior Tania Woods of Oakland Skyline, who won the girls 100 in 11.41 and the 200 in 22.88.

Senior Lindsay Hyatt of Placer won her fourth consecutive title in the girls 800 in 2:06.74.

Hyatt is the third girl to win four consecutive titles in the same event. The others were Natalie Kaaiawahia of Fullerton, who won four consecutive shot put title between 1980-83, and Marion Jones, who won four consecutive titles in the 100 and 200 while competing for Oxnard Rio Mesa as a freshman and sophomore and for Thousand Oaks as a junior and senior.

Athletes from the City Section won three events in the boys’ meet.

Senior Blaine Bussey of Woodland Hills Taft won the 400 in 46.94, junior Rhuben Williams of Eagle Rock won the shot put with a career-best 62-8 1/2 and Dorsey won the 1,600-meter relay in 3:13.01.