Lack of Depth Could Hurt Birmingham : Track and field: Braves will need stellar outings from three performers if they are to repeat as City Section champions.

Can the Birmingham High boys’ team repeat?

Will Andre DeSaussure of Taft become the first sprinter since 1977 to win all three boys’ sprint events?

Can Jeff Nadeau of Monroe match his high-jumping performance of two weeks ago?

Those questions will be answered today at the City Section track and field championships at Birmingham High.

The field events begin at 3 p.m. The first running event--the boys’ 110-meter high hurdles--will start at 4:30. The top three finishers in each event will advance to next week’s state championships at Cerritos College.

Birmingham used superior depth to run away with last year’s City title, but the Braves will need big performances from junior James Lincoln and seniors Tony Serpas and Alvaro Mejia if they are going to keep their title.

Dorsey, which has qualified at least one athlete in 12 of the 13 individual events and has the leading qualifiers in the 400 and 1,600 relays, is regarded as a slight favorite over Birmingham. The Dons’ numbers are somewhat deceiving, however, because several of their qualifiers narrowly advanced to the finals and might be hard-pressed to score points.

Lincoln, the defending City champion in the high jump for Birmingham, will compete in that event as well as the 110 highs, the long jump and the triple jump.

Serpas has qualified for the finals of the 100, 200, 400 and as a member of Birmingham’s 1,600-meter relay team, but he might pull out of the 400 in order to conserve energy for the 200 and 1,600 relay.

Mejia, the defending City champion in the 1,600, will run in that event as well as the 3,200.

“This year, we’re depending on those three kids,” Birmingham Coach Scott King said. “But I think we might be able to get some points out of Joseph Robinson in the pole vault.”

Lincoln, who has a personal best of 6 feet 9 inches in the high jump, will be hard-pressed to defend his title. Nadeau cleared a City record 7-2 1/4 to win the Valley Pac-8 Conference title two weeks ago. He appears capable of scoring from 20 to 26 points in the meet.

“(Lincoln) might not win the high jump, but that’s OK,” King said. “The key is how many points he scores. Last year, he was strictly a high jumper and we only got 10 points out of him. But this year, he could score 20.”

Taft, led by junior DeSaussure, and Fremont, led by senior Kory Jones, appear capable of winning if Birmingham and Dorsey should falter.

DeSaussure and Jones will run in the 100, 200 and 400 and on the anchor leg of their respective 400 relay teams.

DeSaussure, the Southern Section 3-A Division champion in the 200 and 400 as a Royal High sophomore last year, is a prohibitive favorite in those events, but Serpas and Jones could beat him in the 100 if he is slow coming out of the blocks.

Nadeau will be gunning for a triple of his own in the high jump, long jump and triple jump. The Arizona-bound senior shocked the track community with his record jump in the Valley Pac-8 finals. In last week’s semifinals, he had the top qualifying mark in the triple jump (46-7 1/2) and was the No. 2 qualifier in the long jump (22-1 1/2).

Drue Powell of Reseda is heavily favored to win his second consecutive title in the 110 highs.

Oshonda Posey of North Hollywood and Vanita Kinard of El Camino Real are the top local entrants in the girls’ meet.

Posey had the leading qualifying times in the 100 (12.47 seconds) and 200 (wind-aided 25.31) last week.

Kinard was the No. 2 qualifier in the triple jump at 36-3 1/4.