Long Beach Poly, North Set National Records at Arcadia

Long Beach Poly and Riverside North set national high school records in the girls’ sprint medley and shuttle hurdle relays, respectively, Friday night at the Arcadia Invitational track and field meet.

The Poly foursome of Dominique Dorsey, Jasmine Lee and sisters Shalonda and Shana Solomon were clocked at 1 minute 38.73 seconds in the sprint medley, crushing the previous national record of 1:42.08 set by Berkeley at the 2000 Mt. San Antonio College Relays. Shana Solomon and Dorsey ran the first two 100-meter legs for Poly with Lee running the 200 segment and Shalonda Solomon running a 51.6 split on her 400 anchor leg.

The North quartet of juniors Gayle Hunter and Domenique Manning and seniors Lili Calhoun and Ashlee Brown ran 57.49 in the rarely-run shuttle hurdles relay, eclipsing the previous record of 58.89 set by Palm Beach Lakes of West Palm Beach, Fla., in 1998.

In other events, Long Beach Poly outdueled Murrieta Valley to win the boys’ 3,200 relay in 7:42.36, the fastest time in the nation this year, and Los Angeles Loyola won the boys’ 6,400 relay in 17:30.28, another yearly national leader.

-- John Ortega

Dana Point Dana Hills has hired Tom Desiano as boys’ basketball coach. Tom replaces Mark Thornton, who retired at the end of the season.

Desiano played point guard for both Mission Viejo High and Saddleback College, leading Saddleback to the state finals. He played at San Jose State and coached lower-level basketball teams at Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley before joining the Dana Hills staff in 1995 as varsity assistant.