The Laney College women's track team has a 4x100-meter relay team that is the fastest in all of California.
This includes high school (of course), community college (as usual) and the Pacific-10 Conference (unusual).
"It's been a good year for us, the kids are coming around and we will be competitive," Taylor said about his team. "We have the fastest (4x100) relay team in California regardless of the division and that is saying a lot.
"We went down to UCLA last week (April 10) with the intent to compete with the big schools and we did well. We lost to an unattached team that had Allyson Felix on it."
The Laney foursome of Shanae Roach, Lauryn Newson, Dominique Crosby and Quianna Wilson ran 44.72 seconds at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner Kersee Invitational at UCLA on April 10.
Felix, a gold medal winner at the Beijing Summer Olympics Games in 2008, ran the anchor leg on an unattached team.
"We had them through three legs but she (Felix) was running the last leg and I thought, 'We're not going to win this,'" Taylor said.
"We were running with them for awhile. She (Felix) came up to the stands afterward and talked to Ashley (Purvis) and told her 'those girls (the Laney team) ran us harder than anybody has run us in a long time.'"
Purvis, a senior at St. Elizabeth High School in Oakland and the reigning California high school 200-meter champion, is also coached by Taylor.
The only Pac-10 school that has defeated the Eagles is Oregon, and that happened at the Stanford Invitational on March 27. They haven't run against Arizona State.
The 2010 edition of the Laney track team is, in some ways, the typical Eagles squad that is deep in the sprints and shallow in the distance and field events.
It will be a struggle to win the state championship, set for Antelope Valley College in Lancaster on May 15-16.
Newson, a University of Oregon-bound senior, has battled foot injuries this season and is rounding into shape. Laney needs her; she is the defending community college champion in the 100 meters, 200 meters and long jump.
She may have some competition, however. Roach, who runs the lead leg on the 4x100, edged Newsom in the fast heat of the 100 at the Maurice Compton Invitational at Merritt College on April 17. Roach won in 11.70; Newson was second in 11.74.
Merritt College sophomore Ray Stewart has the second-best community college time in the nation 110-meter high hurdles at 14.00 seconds.
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