Monarchs Win State Track Meet : Preps: Winning effort from 400-meter relay team helps Morningside edge Oxnard, 28-26.

Youth was served in impressive fashion Saturday at Cerritos College, where the Morningside High girls’ track team won its first state title.

The Monarchs, getting all of their scoring from a talented group of underclassmen, totaled 28 points in four events to edge Rio Mesa of Oxnard (26 points) for the team title before a crowd of 10,510.

It was a sweet victory for Morningside and its coach, Ron Tatum. Many of the same girls who celebrated Saturday night were on last year’s team that finished second at the state meet.

“When you get a to a state meet, anything can happen,” Tatum said. “You just have to hope you get in there. You have to score, that’s the key. The girls scored just enough tonight to win a title.”

The 400-meter relay team of sophomore Lashawn Stringer, junior Sanoma Nickson, freshman Tai-Ne Gibson and junior Santisha Arnold got Morningside off to a flying start by running away from the field to win in 46.38 seconds.

The Monarchs got their other points from Stringer, who placed third in the 400 (55.31), and from Arnold and Gibson in the sprints. Gibson took fourth in the 100, with Arnold fifth, and they finished in reverse order in the 200.

With that nucleus returning, Morningside will be among the favorites to repeat in 1992.

“That’s where my excitement comes from, because they are young,” Tatum said. “Looking at all these people coming back, it gives me a good feeling. It gives us a definite base to start with.”

Tatum will also have a group of state champion boys returning next year. The 1,600 relay team of juniors Levester Williams, Trayvan Harris and Jesse Swayze and sophomore anchor Edward Turner won impressively with a time of 3:15.01.

“I thought the boys were just super,” Tatum said. “I told them earlier in the year we could be a contender. And this just proved it.”

The Hawthorne boys were considered to have an outside chance at winning the title going into Saturday’s competition. But that chance faded in the first event, the 400 relay.

Compton’s Ricky Carrigan chased down Hawthorne’s Erik Allen on the anchor leg to give the Tarbabes the first of three victories and the team title with 30 points. Hawthorne scored 20 points to finish third behind Esperanza of Anaheim.

Allen started down the back stretch with a sizable lead, but Carrigan, who won the 100 and 200, passed Hawthorne’s anchor in the last 10 meters. Hawthorne Coach Kye Courtney said Allen wasn’t able to run his best because of a tender hamstring muscle that has plagued him most of the season.

“We made it interesting,” Courtney said. “We almost stole it. I thought if we got out to a big enough lead, we might be able to steal it. But their second leg (Edwin Hervey) ran away from Demond Smith. So, the lead we normally have wasn’t as large. We needed a yard and we didn’t get it. I was optimistic for 398 meters. It’s a 400-meter race, unfortunately.

Compton won the 400 relay in 41.68, with Hawthorne next in 41.74.

The Cougars got their other points from Smith, who took second in the 300 intermediate hurdles (38.04) and fourth in the 110 high hurdles.

Carson’s Steve Gonzales, the L.A. City Section champion, placed fourth in the 3,200 in 9:06.57.

St. Bernard freshman Kamara Mayberry placed second in the girls’ 800 (2:08.91) and nearly caught Long Beach Poly’s Chanelle Anderson on the anchor leg of the 1,600 relay as the Vikings placed second with a time of 3:49.02.