ROAD WORK; DEMUS LIVES IN PALMDALE BUT RUNS FOR POWERFUL L.B. WILSON.

Byline: Kirby Lee Special to the Daily News

It is a long journey for most athletes reaching the state track and field championships.

For Palmdale resident Lashinda Demus, it is an especially long haul. The sophomore commutes from the Antelope Valley to attend Long Beach Wilson High, a round trip of 170 miles.

Demus wakes up at 5 a.m. in preparation for the two-hour drive to school with her father Duaine, a computer programmer at TRW in El Segundo.

``It's really no big deal,'' Demus said. ``It's not any different than somebody who commutes from Palmdale to go to work.''

Demus, however, is far from an ordinary Wilson student. She was the nation's top ninth-grader in the 300-meter hurdles last season at 41.90 seconds and is the country's fastest returner. In the Southern Section Division I finals, Demus had a hand in 40 of Wilson's 84 points, winning the 100 hurdles, 300 low hurdles, 400 and running a leg on the Bruins' victorious 400 relay.

In the state meet, Demus teamed with Joni Smith, Latrice Borders and Kim Gildersleeve on the Bruins' 1,600-meter relay team that set a national record of 3:36.32. All four runners return to make Wilson, which tied Long Beach Poly for the team title, a strong contender for its third state title in four years.

Although there are rumors of recruiting, Wilson coach Terry Kennedy doesn't find anything unusual about the arrival of Demus, the only out-of-area student from last year's state-championship team.

``I see it as a credit to my team,'' Kennedy said. ``Kids want to become a part of a successful program. When you are at the top of any sport, people want to find something controversial and use it against you. We don't want to hear about it. It's a sore point and disrespectful to all the other great teams we've had here.''

But track was not the only reason for Demus attending Wilson. She knew many of her Wilson teammates from age-group track, and her mother Yolanda was impressed with Wilson's ``classical'' college-prep curriculum.

The final decision was left to Demus, who also considered Harvard-Westlake, Culver City and St. Bernard highs. Attending nearby Palmdale or Littlerock was never an option.

``I wanted to send her to a school with academics and athletics,'' her mother said. ``Going to Wilson was up to her. Lashinda is the one who has to get up to go to school. She still lives here and it isn't really like she is gone that much.''

Her routine isn't much different than during the past few years when Demus attended junior high in Culver City. At Wilson, Demus stays in Long Beach twice a week at the home of Smith or Nisaa Rahim, a childhood friend who attends Long

Beach Poly.

On the days she commutes, the lengthy drive and early wake-up call don't faze Demus, who said she makes sure she gets ample rest by sleeping during the trip to Long Beach.

``I get my sleep,'' Demus said with a laugh. ``That's one thing I make sure I do. It is nothing new because I have done it all my life.''

Demus' siblings are staying closer to home. Her sister Shanna, 13, a budding basketball player at Shadow Hills Intermediate, will likely attend Quartz Hill. Her foster sister, Crystal Phillips, is a Littlerock freshman.

For Palmdale coach Steve Wilson, Demus is the latest in a line of track standouts to leave the area. Marion Jones, the 1997 world 100 champion and the 1998 world leader in the 100, 200 and long jump, attended junior high in Palmdale but moved to Ventura County before her freshman year to attend Rio Mesa and Thousand Oaks. Kadrina Coffee, now a freshman at New Mexico and a member of the 1995 Junior Pan American team, transferred from Palmdale to St. Bernard after her sophomore season.

``I have learned not to expect anybody until they show up,'' Wilson said. ``It is disappointing. You gain some and lose some, but they always seem to end up somewhere else.''

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PHOTO A long commute hasn't prevented Lashinda Demus from becoming one of the nation's top prep hurdlers.

Kirby Lee/Special to the Daily News