San Diego Player of the Week : For Monte Vista’s Farmer, Jumping Is a Breeze

If the wind is blowing in the right direction at Hughes Stadium at Sacramento City College on Friday and Saturday, Matt Farmer believes he’ll have a chance to do well in the state track and field meet.

Last Saturday in the San Diego Section track and field finals, Farmer, a senior at Monte Vista High School, was named the boys’ athlete of the meet. He won the high jump (6-feet 8-inches) and long jump (23-10) and was second in the triple jump (47-4, to Crawford’s Lou Coons, who jumped 47-11 1/2).

Farmer will compete in all three events this weekend, and if strong winds are present at Hughes Stadium, as they were two years ago, he feels he will be aided physically and psychologically.

“I noticed that two years ago there, the guys (high jumpers) who jump from the left side choked and the guys who jumped from the right side were great,” said Farmer, who turned 18 Friday. “The wind is horrible from the left side. But four guys who jumped from the right side were over 6-11.”

Farmer, The Times’ Athlete of the Week, whose best jump is 6-8, believes that 7-0 probably will win the state meet. Tim Prince, a junior at Logan High in Union City, was the state leader at 7-0 through last week.

A year ago in the state preliminaries, Farmer narrowly missed qualifying for the finals. Eight others had qualified at 6-7, and Farmer, who had jumped 6-6, held the ninth and last qualifying spot until Luis Juico of Piedmont Hills jumped. Juico cleared 6-8, knocking Farmer from the finals.

“The high jump has been consistently my best event,” Farmer said. “I’ve been over 6-8 three times. I’d say it’s between the high jump and the long jump (for his best chance to reach the finals). But don’t write off the triple jump. I think I’m good for a decent jump. If the wind’s at my back, it’ll be more incentive.”

Farmer’s best triple jump is a 47-10 at the Grossmont League finals three weeks ago. He broke the league record by Eric McKenzie (Monte Vista, 1984) by 3 inches. His best long jump was his wind-aided 23-10 effort last Saturday.

“If the wind’s at my back I should make the long jump final,” he said. “That adds 5 inches of confidence for me.”

Last Saturday, Farmer cleared 6-8 on his first attempt, and Poway’s Lance McGrath cleared the same height on his second try. If both jumpers agreed, they had the option of raising the bar less than the required two inches, but Farmer insisted on 6-10.

Both missed at that height, and Farmer was the winner on minimum jumps.

“I was upset when McGrath went 6-8,” Farmer said Saturday. “I wanted to try 6-9. I knew if we moved the bar to 6-9 he’d probably make it because he was jumping so well, but I knew he couldn’t make 6-10. I’ll tell you, he came a lot closer than I did.”

Farmer said that in the past three meets--league finals, section preliminaries and section finals--he has performed in all three events better than he ever had. But come Friday, he’s not sure how he will fare against the state’s best competition.

“It would be nice to qualify in all three events,” he said. “I don’t know if I can compete in three events with that competition. But I’ll give it my best shot.”

Farmer was sixth in the decathlon in the Junior Olympics last year, an event he wants to concentrate on in college. But he hasn’t been able to concentrate on his individual events as much as he would like.

“My season’s just started to go now,” Farmer said. “The last three months I’ve been the team leader, looking out for others and working out with others.”

Farmer was the jumps coach at Monte Vista, tutoring sophomores Thadeous Wilson and Matt Tyler.

“It gives me a lot of satisfaction to see those kids do well,” Farmer said.

Matt Farmer

Monte Vista High

Sport: Track and Field

Height, Weight, Class: 6-1, 165, Sr.

Last Week: Was named the male athlete of the meet in the San Diego Section Track and Field finals at Mount Carmel High School. He won the long jump (23-10) and high jump (6-8) and was second in the triple jump (47-4).