Jason Redmond / Star staff Cerritos 5/31/08: Rio Mesa anchor Mariyah Lee, left, prepares to receive the baton from teammate Takiyah Cotton during the girls 4x100 meter relay at CIF State Track and Field Championships at Cerritos College on Saturday afternoon. The Rio Mesa team, which also included Valexsia Droughn and Saraina Hedgepeth, finished second in the state.

NORWALK — Just short of a county record, Rio Mesa High was almost as close to a gold-medal performance.

Turning in the fourth fastest time in Ventura County history — 0.14 seconds shy of an 18-year-old county and school record — Rio Mesa was runner-up in the girls' 4x100 relay in 47.17 seconds at the CIF Track and Field Championships at Cerritos College on Saturday.

St. Mary's Academy won the title at 46.41.

The 1989 Rio Mesa team, anchored by Angela Burnham, holds the record at 47.07.

"We didn't get the time that we wanted," said Rio Mesa's Saraina Hedgepeth. "But we did get second. To come into the final ranked No. 3 and to finish second is not bad."

Picture-perfect passes and a rocket anchor leg by Mariyah Lee were Rio Mesa's formula for success.

The silver medal was the highest finish by area athletes on Saturday.

For the first time since 2001, the area was shut out of a first-place medal at the state meet.

Brittney Harper of Calabasas was third in the girls' 400, the Rio Mesa boys' 4x100 relay placed fourth, Moorpark's Maxwell Dyce was fifth in the boys' 100, Royal's Phillip Burks was sixth in the boys' triple jump and Valexsia Droughn of Rio Mesa finished eighth in the girls' 100.

Lee swept past three runners in the last 50 meters to seal Rio Mesa's spot on the medal stand. Other members of the relay team were Droughn and Takiyah Cotton.

"What a great leg by Mariyah," said Rio Mesa coach Brian FitzGerald.

"For this team to get second was tremendous. We held the team together by band-aids and bailing wire. We didn't know whether we could get this far."

Cotton tried to put the pain of a season-long back injury behind her.

"It wasn't something that I wanted to think about," she said. "Once you're running on adrenaline, you can forget it."

All four of Rio Mesa's relay team will return next year.

For the second straight day, the Rio Mesa boys' 4x100 relay turned in a strong performance, finishing fourth in 41.51, missing its county-record time set in Friday's prelims by 0.08 seconds. Members of the relay were Jerell Thomas, Quentin Greenlaw, Steven Richards and Sean Alfino.

"We could have done maybe one thing better, but it wouldn't have made a difference," said Greenlaw.

"From where we were at start of the season, this was good," said Thomas, who has lowered his 100-meter time by 0.4 seconds this year.

Harper picked up ground in the final 100 meters to place third in the girls' 400 with a season-best time of 54.44 seconds. Akawkaw Ndipagbor of Long Beach Poly won with a 53.35.

Droughn finished eighth in the girls' 100 in 12.30. Against a headwind, the freshman did not have the pop out of the blocks that she has displayed throughout the postseason.

"I had a cold," said Droughn. "Everything locked up. I was dead the whole way."

The state's fastest freshman girls' sprinter, who had Friday's best qualifying time, brings a positive outlook from her first high school state championship.

"I will work harder and come back stronger next year," said Droughn.

In a close finish in the boys' 100, Dyce was fifth in 10.78, only 0.02 seconds behind the third-place time.

"I could have had a better finish," said Dyce. "I thought we had put all the mistakes behind us yesterday — we got lost on the way to the stadium."

The Moorpark junior finished his season as the state's third fastest sprinter with a personal best of 10.53, tied for second on the county's all-time list.

Burks had a consistent series in the boys' triple jump with four marks of 47 feet or better, including the second best mark in his career with a leap of 47-714.

Saturday may have produced the best day of distance running in state high school history. An argument could be made that it was the best nationally.

Christine Babcock of Woodbridge broke her own week-old national record by two seconds in the girls' 1,600 with a time of 4:33.82, winning the title incredibly by nearly 16 seconds.

Riverbank's German Fernandez clipped two seconds off the state meet record in the boys' 1,600 with a 2008 national-leading mark of 4:00.29.

Jordan Hasay of Mission Prep bettered the 12-year-old state meet record in the girls' 3,200. Hasay held off Laurynne Chetelat of Davis to win with a 9:52.16, squeezing past the record of 9:52.80 set by Kim Mortensen of Thousand Oaks in 1996.

Mortensen still owns the national record at 9:48.59.