State Track Meet Marred by Chaos From Beginning to End--Again

The state track meet last weekend in Sacramento was an accident waiting to happen, and everyone who could remember 1979 or 1982 or 1985 knew it.

“Back to Hughes Stadium?” they said. “Let’s hope it goes well this time.”

Competitively, it did, with so many great marks and great events.

Organizationally, it didn’t, with so many headaches and frustrations for competitors and coaches.

The Accutrack timing device failed several times. So did the officials, who incorrectly let 9 athletes advance from the preliminaries to the finals in some events and 10 or 11 in others. The protests to the jury of appeals started Friday and didn’t end until an hour after the final race Saturday night, by which time the L.A. Dorsey girls’ team lost its share of the team title on a sportsmanship call.

And then there was the case of the 400-meter race.

The field for Saturday’s final left the blocks clean, only to be called back because of a timing malfunction.

The second time out, Steve Lewis of Fremont American, the defending champion, made a false start and was disqualified. The crowd booed as officials gathered in the infield, and then clapped in unison and booed some more until, lo and behold, Lewis was put back in the race, which he went on to win.

Bob Burns of the Sacramento Bee asked Tom Moore, the starter, if the crowd influenced his decision to let Lewis back in the race.

“No,” Moore said. “Well, I know everyone wanted to see him run. There was no doubt he’d be state champion.”

Now, there’s the proper attitude for an official.

In the broader context, the California Interscholastic Federation is also responsible. Four years ago, despite witnessing bad feelings toward the Sacramento organizers in 1979 and ‘82, the CIF approved the plan to give the meet to the Sac-Joaquin Section in 1985 and ’87 and the Southern Section in 1984 and ’86.

If nothing else, that proved that bad judgment in a meeting room can affect a track meet just as much as an official can.

The good news is that the event, under an agreement that touched several other sports, will be given a permanent home in the Southern Section, which has proven that it can do a good job.

How dominating was Lakewood pitcher Mike McNary against Anaheim Esperanza in the Southern Section 4-A baseball championship game Saturday night at Dodger Stadium?

“He’s the best pitcher we’ve seen since who knows when,” Esperanza Coach Mike Curran said. “No one had ever done to us what he did tonight. He was going to beat us no matter what.”

McNary overpowered the Aztecs, the defending champions, with an 87-m.p.h. fastball as Lakewood won the title, 1-0, in nine innings. McNary went the distance, allowing two hits and striking out 13.

When Esperanza hitters didn’t strike out, they weren’t exactly getting around on McNary, either. The Aztecs pulled only four of his pitches--two ground-outs to shortstop and two ground-outs to third.

The victory culminated an outstanding high school career for McNary, who will play for Loyola Marymount next season.

He had a 13-2 record with an 0.90 earned-run average in 1986 and, although less dominating in the 1987 regular season at 7-3, he got hot in the playoffs and threw a one-hitter against Westminster, a three-hitter against La Puente Bishop Amat and an eight-hitter against Placentia El Dorado before beating Esperanza.

Palisades will be seeking its third straight City 4-A tennis championship when it plays North Hollywood today at 1 p.m. at the Racquet Centre in Studio City.

The same teams met for the title in 1984 and ’85. North Hollywood won in 1984 but was later stripped of its victory for an illegal lineup change. Palisades got the victory outright the next season.

In the 3-A final, Marshall will play Eagle Rock, also at 1 p.m. Marshall advanced to the championship match with an upset win over defending champion San Pedro, while Eagle Rock beat South Gate in the other semifinal.

Woodland Hills El Camino Real of the 4-A and South Gate of the 3-A, the top-seeded teams, will be defending their City girls’ softball championships when they play for the 1987 title Wednesday.

El Camino Real, looking for its fifth straight title, meets Sylmar at 2:30 p.m. at Cal State Northridge, and South Gate plays Bell at 3 at South Gate Park.

Coach Harvey Kitani has put together a solid field for the first Fairfax summer basketball tournament July 16-19, a 16-team competition that will include Santa Ana Mater Dei, Palisades, Verbum Dei, Westchester, Simi Valley and Manual Arts along with the hosting Lions.

Fairfax, defending City 4-A champion, is raising money to compete in a couple of major regular-season tournaments, the Iolani in Hawaii Dec. 18-23 and the King Cotton in Arkansas Dec. 27-30.

Simi Valley, which will have one of the top teams in the state with Don MacLean and Sean DeLaittre, has December trips planned to Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Las Vegas.

Prep Notes

A Santa Barbara-Irvine University final for the Southern Section 5-A tennis championship last week marked the first time in seven years that a team from the South Bay did not play for the major-division championship. . . . Ernie Simon, a coach at El Monte, Rosemead, Gardena Serra, San Pedro, Carson and Harbor CommunityCollege the last 40 years, will be honored at a retirement party Saturday at the Tasman Sea restaurant in San Pedro. The $20 fee includes dinner and a gift, and checks can be made payable to the Ernie Simon Retirement Dinner, c/o Carson High. . . .. J.R. Smith, a shortstop-pitcher for Van Nuys Montclair Prep, had six hits in the Mounties’ 12-4 playoff win over Fillmore to tie a Southern Section single-game record held by four others.