TRACK AND FIELD / CITY SECTION CHAMPIONSHIPS : Taft’s DeSaussure Shakes Off Butterflies to Sweep Sprints

Andre DeSaussure of Taft High breathed a big sigh of relief as he left the track at Birmingham High on Thursday.

DeSaussure, a junior, had just become the second athlete to win all three boys’ sprint events in the City Section championships, yet he admitted that his cool, calm exterior had masked a major case of the butterflies. “I was nervous,” he said. “There is no doubt about that. I definitely felt some pressure.”

His nerves weren’t helped when Taft--with DeSaussure running anchor--finished a disappointing fourth in the 400-meter relay (42.68 seconds). But he followed that with victories in the 100 (wind-aided 10.58 seconds), 400 (47.75) and 200 (wind-aided 20.93) to power Taft to 34 points and a tie for third in the team standings with Fremont.

Dorsey won its fourth boys’ title--and first since 1989--with 81 points, followed by defending champion Birmingham (55). Washington (31) finished fourth and Monroe (22) was fifth.

University won its first girls’ title with 50 points, followed by Gardena (36), Washington (32), El Camino Real (30) and Locke (27).

DeSaussure, who equaled the hat trick of Chatsworth’s Ronnie Wayne Williams in 1977, was unstoppable after edging Birmingham’s Tony Serpas (10.61) and Dorsey’s Leo Settle (10.64) in the 100.

He won the 400 by nearly 1 1/2 seconds, and his margin of victory over runner-up Settle in the 200 was a whopping .48 seconds. “That was the best race of my life,” DeSaussure said. “I’ve never run that well.”

Drue Powell of Reseda felt the same way after romping to his second consecutive title in the boys’ 110 high hurdles.

Powell, who finished third in last year’s state championships, got off to “the best start of my life,” and never wavered as he finished half a second ahead of second-place Danny Haag of Granada Hills.

More than one observer believed Powell might have gotten away with a rolling start, but he was not one of them. “It felt like everybody else came out of the blocks and then just kind of stopped,” Powell said. “I just told myself to keep going.”

Jeff Nadeau of Monroe was a double winner in the boys’ high jump (7 feet) and triple jump (45-7 3/4), after beginning the meet a disastrous eighth (wind-aided 20-11 3/4) in the long jump.

Nadeau, who cleared a City Section record of 7-2 1/4 to win the Valley Pac-8 Conference finals two weeks ago, cleared 7-0 on his first attempt before missing three times at 7-3. He came fairly close to clearing the bar on his third attempt.

Birmingham fell short in its bid for a second consecutive title, but it wasn’t because the Braves performed poorly. Dorsey just performed better, scoring points in 12 of the 15 events.

For Birmingham, Alvaro Mejia won the 3,200 in 9:31.59 and placed second in the 1,600 in 4:21.76. James Lincoln placed second in the high jump (6-6), fourth in the long jump (wind-aided 22-2 3/4) and triple jump (44-4), and sixth in the high hurdles (15.19).

Oshonda Posey of North Hollywood, Vanitta Kinard of El Camino Real and Konya Hubbard of San Fernando were victorious in the girls’ meet. Posey timed a wind-aided 11.94 to easily win the 100, Kinard bounded a wind-aided 36-10 in the triple jump and Hubbard cleared a personal best of 5-6 in the high jump.