TRACK AND FIELD: NOTRE DAME AHEAD OF PACK KNIGHTS DOMINATE SPRINTS AT PRELIMS.

Byline: IVAN OROZCO

Staff Writer

DOWNEY -- Notre Dame lived up to its billing Saturday night.

The Knights, who came into the meet favored to be a powerhouse in the sprints, qualified five sprinters to the Southern Section championships and left Saturday's Div. III track and field prelims meet having earned seven combined victories in the boys' 100, 200 and both relays.

Nick Porter, Thaddeus Brown, Sean Jackson and Barton made up the 4x100 team. Porter, Brown and Jackson took gold in the 200 with 21.57, 21.97 and 22.17 marks. Porter and Brown also took gold in the 100, while teammate Ben Bruneau placed second, also qualifying to the championships.

"It's like we're competing against each other, pushing each other for the best times," Bruneau said. "We didn't hear we were the favorites, we don't worry about none of that."

Billy Burgess also qualified with first-place finishes in the 110 and 300 hurdles, and Sam DeMartinis qualified in the shot put with toss of 53 feet, 10inches.

One of the more anticipated races came in the 400, in which Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks sprinter Chris Barton led most of the way until Lawndale High sprinter William Smith caught him late.

Smith passed Barton one step from the finish line to win, but beating him with a time of 49.65 had its consequences.

"My feet were on fire," Smith said. "I call it a flaming injury. I can feel them burn from my little toe all the way to middle of my feet. (Barton) is a great runner, so I just pushed because if I was going to be there with him, I knew it was going to take a lot of work."

Barton, who finished third at last year's state meet, led for most of the race until Smith began kicking out the final 30 meters to pass Barton, who sat out most of the season nursing a hamstring injury.

"My legs just tightened up," Barton said. "It probably has something to do with (the injury), but I'm just hoping my time was good enough to qualify."

Despite coming in second in his heat, Barton's time of 49.72 seconds was good enough to place him in the Section championships next week at Cerritos College in Norwalk. Winners in each heat and the next best four times in each sprinting event qualify.

Barton's second-place finish kept the Knights from sweeping first place across the board in all boys' sprinting events.

Barton also anchored both Notre Dame relay teams to first-place finishes, including the meet's best time of 3:20.66 in the mile relay and fourth best in the 4x100.

Notre Dame also had qualifiers on the girls' side. Dominique Augustus clocked the meet's best time in the 100 meters (12.24), and Ilsza Heredy took gold in the No. 2 heat in the 200 with a 25.31 clocking. Brianna Kigozi (long jump), Alexis Francis (discus) and Alexa Berg (shot put) qualified in field events.

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