Northwest Valley Sprints Go to Brown : Prep track: San Fernando standout wins 100- and 200-meter races. Berths in City prelims possible for absentees or disqualified athletes.

Ontiwaun Carter, Kennedy High’s 100- and 200-meter specialist, missed the Northwest Valley Conference track and field finals Wednesday at Birmingham High after undergoing gallbladder surgery last week.

Teammate Oriana Cavallaro, one of the City Section’s faster hurdlers, misjudged the first barrier in the 300 lows and was disqualified when she walked out of her lane.

The 400 relay team from San Fernando--expected to battle Kennedy and Chatsworth for the conference title--was disqualified when leadoff runner LaKarlos Townsend miscued with a false start.

Yet they still have a chance to compete in the City preliminaries next week because of a rule that allows one wild-card participant in each event.

Carter, Cavallaro and the Tigers’ relay team will be considered for the vacant lane in their respective events when City Commissioner Hal Harkness reviews season-best marks while seeding the preliminary meets, which will be held May 9-10.

Carter, a senior, has timed 10.8 seconds in the 100 and 22.5 in the 200 this year. Cavallaro, also a senior, ran the 300 low hurdles in 48.8. San Fernando timed a converted 43.2 in the 400 relay.

Although disappointed by the disqualification of San Fernando’s 400 relay team, Tiger sprinter Leonice Brown clocked a pair of fast times en route to conference championships in the 100 and 200 despite nursing an ankle sprain and a sore hamstring.

Brown ran a wind-aided 10.5 to edge Kennedy’s Gerald Martin (10.6) in the 100. Brown, who will attend Colorado State on a football scholarship, came back in the 200 to clock a school-record-tying 21.2. Chatsworth’s Delvon Hardaway was second in 21.9.

“I thought I wasn’t going to get out (of the blocks) that fast,” Brown said. “I felt good around the turn and just turned it on when I got to the straightaway.

El Camino Real’s Jaffers Bailey and Granada Hills’ Patrice Lattimore were the only other double winners in individual events.

Bailey claimed the 110 high hurdles in 15.0 and won the 400 in 50.0 over favorites Derrick Stewart of Granada Hills and Taft’s Ruben Benitez. Stewart, who has timed 48.61, was second in 50.5 and Benitez, seventh in the state final a year ago, was fourth in 52.1 despite nursing a knee injury sustained while running the 100 in the Santa Barbara Easter Relays.

Lattimore won the girls’ 100 and 200 and ran a leg on the Highlanders’ fourth-place 400-relay team (53.4). An aiding wind at her back, Lattimore timed 12.2 in the 100; teammate Danielle McCulley was second in 12.5. The senior later won the 200 with ease, clocking 25.2.

Cavallaro overcame a slow start in the 100 low hurdles to time a season-best 15.5. Cavallaro trailed Tamika Greer of El Camino Real at the start and pulled even by the fourth hurdle before recording a six-meter win over Granada Hills’ Tamara Wagner (16.3).

Taft’s Darnell Hendricks, an outfielder on the baseball team, won the 300 intermediate hurdles in a personal-best 41.5 and finished second to Bailey in the highs in 15.3. The times are respectable considering Hendricks rarely works out with the track team.

Chatsworth won the boys’ 400 (42.9) and 1,600 (3:34.8) relays and Kennedy repeated the feat on the girls’ side in 51.2 and 4:19.1.