By DAVE DAVIES-DN Sports Editor

Looking at the qualifying time entries for the 2000 CIF State Track and Field Championships, the Northern Section athletes will have to take their performances to a new level in order to bring home a medal from Friday and Saturday's events.

The Red Bluff High School girls' 4-by-100 meter relay team ranks 27th out of 27 heading into the state meet at Cerritos College in the southern California community of Norwalk. The Spartan team of Stephanie Teague, Cassie Dutton, Shaneen Garth and Molly Stinson clocked 50.36 seconds in winning the section title last Friday. They are up against the likes of Berkeley, which registered a top qualifying mark of 46.13.

Red Bluff junior Obi Osuji faces stiff competition as well in the 200 and 400 races that he won at the NSCIF finals. Osuji enters the state 400 preliminaries with a 50.31 (26th), and only the top finisher in each of three nine-man heats plus the next six fastest qualifiers move on to Saturday's finals. Osuji's 200 time (22.43) ranks 23rd.

"It's a different world when you get down there," said Red Bluff coach Laird Richards. "What we tell them and what he hope to have them do is to go down there and let the competition elevate them to a higher standard, and that's what we hope to achieve is new personal records. We don't want it to be a goal to just go to the state meet, we want them to go down there and perform at their top level."

The California championships have witnessed some of the greatest high school performances ever over the years, including the 1992 100-meter dash of track superstar Marion Jones, who set a national high school record of 11.14. Jones also set a national record in the 200 that year (22.67).

Los Molinos senior Lacy Oliver won the section discus championship with a fling of 123 feet. That mark rates 21st among 25 state qualifiers, though her winning toss at the Mid-Valley League finals of 135'2-1/2" would rank 14th.

Notes: While some of the national high school records date back to the 1970s - like Renaldo Nehamiah's 110 high hurdles mark of 12.90 from 1977 in New Jersey - only two were set in the "60s. In the boys' 3200 meters (the two mile), the national record of 8:41.50 was set by Steve Prefontaine of Coos Bay, Ore., on May 24, 1969. By comparison, the state record of 8:44.9 dates to 1975 by Eric Hulst of Laguna Beach. In the 1600 (the mile), Jim Ryun of East Wichita, Kan., still holds the record of 3:58.30 set in 1965. The California record is 4:04.00 set in 1995. ... Fox Sports Net West 2 will air the CIF State Track and Field Finals on a delay broadcast on Saturday, June 17, at 10 a.m. Jim Watson and Tom Feuer will be the announcers and John Jackson will provide sideline analysis.