Banning Girls Win L.A. City Track Title : Preps: Third-place finish in last event, the 4x400-meter relay, clinches championship over Locke.

Going into the last event Thursday at Birmingham High, the Banning girls’ team needed at least a third-place finish to win its first L.A. City Section track and field championship.

The 4x400-meter relay team of Jeanette Judge, Erica Cornelius, Lakia Brown and Sonya Bryant came through in the clutch by finishing third, ending Locke’s seven-year reign as City champions.

Banning finished with 57 points, Locke had 54 and Dorsey 45.

“We put it all together today,” said Banning Coach Ed Paculba as he clutched the championship plaque. “This is great, Locke had been champions for so long but we worked hard and we did it.”

Locke won the boys’ championship with 55 points.

Banning triple jumper Tiffany McLeod set a City record with a jump of 37 feet 6 inches and led off the fourth-place 4x100 meter relay team.

“We didn’t think about the championship so we wouldn’t be nervous,” McLeod said. “We thought we had a pretty good chance, I’m just happy we did it.”

Bryant won her second consecutive City championship in the long jump with an 18-8 1/4 jump.

Bryant added strong legs in both relays to help the Pilots win the title.

The top four finishers at the meet advance to the state meet next Friday at Cerritos College. Bryant and McLeod were the only winners among the Banning girls.

Judge finished second in the 400 (58.72 seconds), Lavea Taape was second in the shotput (36-7) and Brown finished fourth in the 800 (2:27.08).

If Steve Gonzales of Carson didn’t love tennis so much, he might have been going for his second consecutive City championship as well. Gonzales won the 3,200 meters in 9:28.34.

Last year Gonzales missed some track practices because he was on the courts.

“I kind of got tired of track last year,” Gonzales said. “I would play tennis instead of running, but I would still compete in track.”

Running part-time, Gonzales came in fifth in last year’s 3,200. Thursday he ran the first 400 meters in 1:03, took a 30-meter lead at 1,600 meters and cruised to the victory unchallenged.

The time was well off his lifetime best of 9:15.

“In a big race there is usually someone to push the pace,” Gonzales said. “Today there was no one, but I’m sure I will run faster at the state meet with better competition.”

In the girls’ 800, San Pedro sophomore Nicole Kleiner ran 2:25.69, good for second place behind Locke’s Brenda Stewart, who ran 2:24.47.

Kleiner ran a City-leading 2:22.35 at last week’s semifinals.

“I’m a little disappointed,” she said. “My first lap was too slow, everybody was so bunched up, I felt crunched in.”

Kleiner ran the first lap in 1:14, four seconds slower than the time she was hoping for. She ran faster (1:10) in the second lap, which is unusual for half-milers.

Narbonne senior Yolanda Wright improved on last year’s third-place finish by winning the shotput with a throw of 37-2 3/4.

Banning senior Travis Davis won the triple jump with a jump of 45-2 3/4. Davis, who will attend Notre Dame in the fall on a football scholarship, spent less time with the weights and more time on the triple jump runway last week.

“It’s tough to merge both types of training, but for the City and state meets I’m going to cut back a little on the lifting,” Davis said.