Vickers Must Now Convince Herself : Injuries Robbed Pomona Star of Some of Her Confidence

Janeene Vickers was having trouble clearing this one hurdle, that of explaining her current outlook on track. Just as she often does in her races, she hesitated on the approach, chopped her steps a few times, but, as always, got over.

“It’s not so much the CIF titles now,” Vickers, the Pomona High School star, was saying. “That is important because I want to get the points and have Pomona win. But in another sense, I have to start proving in my own mind that I’m back.

“Last year when I went to CIF, I felt dominating. Just go race, no problem. This year, I don’t have the same feeling. It’s not a loss of control, but something like it.”

As a junior, she really was dominating:

--Winning Southern Section 3-A titles in the 300- and 100-meter low hurdles, the 400 and the 400 relay as Pomona won the team championship.

--A double winner in the hurdles at the state meet, the only points the Red Devils scored in tying Compton for third.

--A fourth-place finish in the 400 and a leg on the winning American 1,600 relay team at the Junior World competition at Athens, Greece, during the summer.

So what’s wrong with the marks this year, Vickers’ senior season? Actually, nothing, at least for most people. She has the No. 3 time in the state in the 100 low hurdles (13.98), No. 1 in the state and No. 2 in the nation in the 300 lows (a hand-timed 42.3), No. 2 in the state in the 100-meter dash (a wind-aided 11.89) and an anchor leg on the 400 relay team with the No. 2 time in the Southern Section (48.25).

The problem is not in the time, only the temperament. A groin injury that caused her to miss much of the outdoor season, when she was expected to be one of the top runners in the nation, has been healing fine, but the long hours of treatment and the frustration of not being able to compete have left other scars. The return of her racing mentality is the main concern now.

“It was very difficult for her to sit back and watch others do well in events she knew in her heart that she could beat everyone in,” said Ernie Gregoire, Vickers’ coach for three years with the Southern California Cheetahs. “She probably masked it real good. The only one who really knew how much it hurt was her. The rest of us felt it, but you could tell it was really eating her up inside.”

And when the Southern Section finals take place for all divisions at Cerritos College, where she won the two state titles last June, Vickers will again be consumed by a feeling.

A drive to win or fear of failure? Either way, she won’t let it show.

This mental toughness is quite a switch for the one who used to cry before races. The nervousness would get to her so much, like the time at the Arco-Jesse Owens meet in eighth grade or the Baseline League finals a year later, that tears would come. Then the race would start and her athletic ability would take over.

Vickers won the Southern Section 3-A title in the 400 as a freshman, obviously the start of something big. By now, she already has five individual championships to her credit--including two in the 400, which she has dropped this season in favor of the 100--and no more tears.

The change came at the junior worlds in Athens. Not with how she ran, just that she went.

“My mental preparation and confidence was so low when I was younger,” she said. “But three years down the road, the kid goes to Greece without her parents or her friends and does fine. All the way around the world. I didn’t win my race (the 400), but I came pretty close to my best. And I think of the people there, I had the most composure, at least of the people in the 400. My whole level of composure really improved there.”

To the point that she can win races now without being 100% mentally ready. A complete package, whenever that returns, will simply add an extra hurdle for the opposition.

“It’s there,” she said of the right spark. “I just have to find it again.”

No. 1 Newport Harbor of Newport Beach will meet No. 2 Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach for the Southern Section 4-A volleyball championship tonight at 8 at Marina High in Huntington Beach.

Defending 3-A champion L.A. Loyola, looking for its fourth title in five years, faces Central League rival Arcadia at 6 p.m. The Cubs graduated four of six starters off last season’s winning team and are led this year by three seniors, Dylan Clark, Ted Slattery and Kevin Martin.

Prep Notes The 75th annual Southern Section track finals, with approximately 1,300 competitors representing 200 schools, will begin today with field events at 11 a.m. and running events at noon. . . . San Fernando won the City gymnastics title Tuesday, scoring 135.45 points to beat defending champion Huntington Park (128.30) and L.A. University (119.80). The Tigers had finished second last season and third the year before. . . . Occidental College will hold a football coaching clinic today from 8:30 a.m. through 6:30 p.m. in Thorne Hall. For more information: (213) 259-2608. . . . Jeff Camp of the Temecula Linfield Christian baseball team got his 134th career hit last week with a home run to set a Southern Section record, surpassing Tom McKay of Van Nuys Montclair Prep, who had 133 from 1978-81. . . . Tac Tharp of North Hollywood won individual honors and Woodland Hills Taft took the team title at the City golf championships Wednesday at Griffith Park. Tharp’s victory keeps the title at North Hollywood for a third straight year, Chris Barbour having won in 1985 and ’86. . . . Lance Gross, a former assistant, has been named football coach at Diamond Bar. . . . The Granada Hills basketball team retired jersey No. 42 in honor of Gary Gray, the 1987 City 3-A Player of the Year who started every game of his high school career. . . . Tim Mitchell, a sophomore, hit his 10th home run of the season for Culver City last Friday. . . . A committee from Jackson Academy High in Jackson, Miss., will arrive in Los Angeles May 27 for a week of interviews to find an area football team to play in California in 1988. A final selection will be made by July 4.