2006 CIF-State Track and Field
Team Championships

     Eight Is Not Enough For L.B. Poly Boys;
James Logan Girls Spoil All-Long Beach Sweep

By Mark Tennis
Editor, CalHiSports.com
Exec. Editor, Student Sports

      It wasn’t quite an an all-Long Beach sweep of the team titles at the 88th
CIF State Track & Field Championships on Saturday at Cerritos College, but the
end of the meet was fitting with the Long Beach Poly and Long Beach Wilson
girls going at it neck-and-neck in the 4x400 relay.

      Coming around the last turn, Wilson’s Ebony Collins was trailing Poly’s
final runner and winced from a jolt of pain caused by a cramp. Collins
instanteously erased the pain from her mind and instead sped up and passed her
opponent down the stretch for the win.

      As it turned out, Collins’ team needed every ounce of her determination. If
she hadn’t won, Wilson would have come up short in its quest for a CIF team
championship behind James Logan of Union City. The two schools instead tied
for championship with 37 points and both will be credited with titles on
various all-time state lists.

      No such drama was needed on the boys side. Long Beach Poly already had the
team crown sewed up when Bryshon Nellum ran the anchor leg in the 4x400 relay.
Nellum, a world class junior, already had turned in what head coach Don
Norford called “maybe the greatest day for a Poly athlete at the state
meet” by winning both the 200 and the 400. Nellum brought the team home in
second-place behind J.W. North of Riverside, which gave Poly 42 points. That
was more than enough to beat Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks and Diamond Ranch
(tied for second with 26 points) and gives the Jackrabbits eight boys state
team titles. That ties the school for first on the all-time state list with
Jefferson of Los Angeles and Muir of Pasadena.

       Long Beach Wilson's team title is the first for the school since the girls won
it by themselves eight years ago and it is the program's third overall. Logan
won the boys team title two years ago and now has its first girls
championship.

       “A championship is a championship and we feel fortunate and real good about
it,” said Wilson coach Terry Kennedy. “You’ve just got to give it up for
Logan. They stepped up big and could have been the victims of some adversity.
It’s two great programs and I can’t say anything bad about it.”

      Kennedy estimated that his team would score between 36 and 40 points and knows
the total might have been insurmountable if an injury had not taken out
standout DeAna Carson from a few events. The Bruins got 10 points from Collins
winning in the 300 hurdles in near-record time, added 10 more in the 4x100
relay plus six from Collins for finishing third in the 100. The final total
came from what turned out to a key one point from Shelise Williams in the 200
and the 10 points in final event.

      “Everybody did the best they could and I was worried when Ebony was
beginning to cramp up,” Kennedy added. “But we felt confident and we knew
if we stayed together that we’d be okay.”

       Kennedy might not have figured, though, that Logan would wind up showing such
depth. Despite not winning in an individual or relay event, the Colts moved
into title contention late in the meet when Tierra Ward finished in
third-place behind Collins in the 300 hurdles right about at the same time
when Tracey Stewart was finishing in second-place in the triple jump. Stewart
earlier landed a second-place mark in the long jump while Ward had a
fifth-place run in the 100 hurdles. The rest of Logan’s points came via a
second-place sprint in the 4x100 relay, a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter
dash from Kristina Davis and a sixth-place throw in the shot put from Jaleesa
Jeffery.

      “Finally, we did it,” said Logan head coach Lee Webb. “We’ve had five
second-place finishes and just missed out many times. Jaleesa came down to her
last throw to get her place and all of them competed hard. Tierra and Tracey
really picked it up. It was feeling like we were the Buffalo Bills or
something.”

      Poly trailed Diamond Ranch and Notre Dame for most of the meet as the Panthers
got two firsts and a third from junior hurdler and long jumper Terry Prentice
while the Golden Knights were led from a win by Rodney Glass in the 100 plus a
win in the 4x100 relay and then a fourth-place showing by Chris Barton in the
400.

      But everyone knew what was coming toward the end of the meet with Nellum in
the 200 plus two Jackrabbits in the high jump and then the 4x400 relay. As
Nellum chased down Lincoln of Stockton’s Devin Mays in a sizzling 200, the
results from the high jump came in, too, which showed Poly with seven points
from Nick Armstrong (tied for second) and three more from Terrence Austin
(tied for fourth). Nellum already had 10 points from winning the 400 while
Travon Patterson (also a football wideout like Austin) had picked up a
fourth-place finish in the 100.

      “When we dropped the baton (in the 4x100) a few weeks ago, I said at the
time that thought I might help us because we were able to coach the kids a lot
more in their individual events,” Norford said. “Baton practice takes a
lot of time.”

      The hot, steamy conditions on the track on Saturday might also have been too
much to handle for Nellum in four events instead of only being in three.

     “Yeah, I think it did kind of help,” Nellum said of only have to do three
events. “It was a hot day. It’s cooler now, but it was tough. It just
feels great to win the title. Last year, we skipped it, but this year we came
back on our tradition.”

       Combined the CIF state title that Poly won last March in girls basketball, the
school has 23 CIF titles in all sports combined. Berkeley, which 20 years ago
ruled in that category, has been left in the dust, still stuck on 16.

      Norford himself tied a state record with his 11th CIF championship. He now has
three boys track titles to go with eight for the girls. He’s now tied with
cross country coach Ken Reeves, who has six boys cross country state title and
five for girls cross country.

      “It feels real good to do all this,” Norford said. “It all takes a lot
of hard work from the community, our administration, our coaches and our kids.
It’s a family.”

Note to DyeStatCal readers: Check out our coverage of prep football this fall on CalHiSports.com. No one will paint you a clearer picture of what’s going on as the CIF gears up for its historical state championship bowl games in December.