San Diego Prep Track Roundup : Hurdles Are Proving Ground for Collum, Outlaw, Vaughn

The 100-meter low hurdles at the San Diego Section track meet will feature three girls with something to prove.

Michelle Collum, a senior at Point Loma, is out to prove that her time of 13.9 in the City Eastern League finals wasn’t a fluke and that her dismal finish at the section finals last year was a fluke.

Michelle Outlaw, a junior from Lincoln who won the section championship last year, wants to prove that she still is San Diego County’s best hurdler.

Darla Vaughn of Mira Mesa, also a junior, wants to prove that she can come back from injury and beat Collum and Outlaw.

The three will run in separate heats at the section preliminaries Saturday at Mt. Carmel High School. They will run head-to-head Thursday in the finals.

Outlaw started the season as the favorite. She won the 100 lows against some of the state’s best at the Sundevil/Coca-Cola Invitational in 14.27.

But Outlaw didn’t better that mark until she ran a 14.1 at the City Central League finals last Friday.

“I started the season well,” Outlaw said, “but then I stagnated because I didn’t have much competition in the league. Luckily, I’m starting to run really well right now.”

Collum, who was busy leading Point Loma to the state girls’ basketball title just before track started, didn’t concentrate on the hurdles until early in May.

Collum and Vaughn both were timed at 14.3 in a dual meet May 8. Then Collum had a hand-timed 14.2 in the league preliminaries. In the league finals, Collum ran a hand-timed 13.9, the state’s fifth fastest time this year.

Failing to qualify for the section finals last year motivated her to improve her times, Collum said.

“I banged my knee hard in practice the week before CIF last year,” said Collum, who had the third-fastest time before the meet. “I figured I’d run anyway and see what happened. It hurt really badly and I ran a 16.0. I was really disappointed.

“I felt like I had something to prove this year. If I had won last year, I could have said, ‘They know I can run. I’ll concentrate on basketball.’ But I couldn’t by not qualifying.”

Vaughn was considered one of the favorites at the start of the season, but she couldn’t start training at full speed until about a month ago. She was in second before the last hurdle at the section meet last year but fell going over the last hurdle and crawled for third place.

During cross-country season, Vaughn developed a pain in her leg. A muscle in Vaughn’s left knee was underdeveloped and caused her patella to grind against the other bones in her knee. So she had to undergo physical therapy for six weeks.

Vaughn ran 14.1 in the league finals against Collum but said she hit two hurdles hard and that her blocks slipped as she started.

Who is the best?

Outlaw: “They’re both good athletes. . . . I have the ability, but it will be a close race.”

Vaughn: “I like being the underdog because it takes the pressure off me. But I can run faster.”

Collum: “In the serious races, Michelle (Outlaw) is gonna be there. But I don’t underestimate Darla. Whoever wins is gonna have an awesome time, something like 13.7 or 13.8. All three will be pumped and going after it.”