State High School Track and Field Championship : Injured Sprinter Bertell Scratches From Meet

Sheri Bertell, the top girls’ sprinter in Orange County this season, has scratched from the state track meet because of injuries suffered in an automobile accident last Saturday.

Bertell, a junior from Mission Viejo High School who was a passenger in the car, required stitches in her head and right leg. She had qualified in the 100- and 200-meter runs but felt she wouldn’t be competitive for the preliminary races that begin at 3 p.m. today in Sacramento’s Hughes Stadium.

“She tried to run out of the blocks in practice this week and couldn’t get the necessary drive,” said Fred Almond, Mission Viejo coach. “Rather than embarrass herself, Sheri decided to scratch.

“We’re all disappointed, but fortunately, she wasn’t seriously injured in the car accident and she has next year to look forward to.”

Bertell has run the 100 meters in 12.09 seconds and the 200 in 25.40. Both marks were wind-aided.

Erika Lovett of Savanna figures to be the county’s top contender for a state title. Lovett, a junior, will compete in the 800 meters, in which she has the second-fastest time in the state this season.

Lovett ran the 800 in 2:12.86 last week in the Masters meet at Cerritos College, second in the state to Kim McAllister of Locke, who has run a 2:12.42.

“If you look at Erika’s times, she’s been improving by two seconds in her last couple of meets,” said Glen Garson, Savanna coach. “I think she’s just starting to realize that she has a great career ahead of her.”

Two sophomores, high jumper Lori Svoboda of El Dorado and Allison Franke of Canyon, also should fare well in the meet. Svoboda high-jumped 5-feet 10-inches in the Masters meet to establish herself as the Southern Section’s top qualifier.

Svoboda, who quit cheerleading to concentrate on track, joined some select company with her jump last week. Only two county girls, Yleana Carrasco of Anaheim and Ursula Lovely of Kennedy, have ever jumped higher.

Carrasco owns the county record of 6-feet, and Lovely went 5-11. Both marks were established in 1985. Svoboda’s mark was also the fifth-best in the nation this year.

Franke established the section’s best discus mark of 138-4 in the Masters. Dawn Dumble of Bakersfield has the state’s top mark of 157-7.

Shotputter Kaleaph Carter of Edison, sprinter Paul Peters of Santa Ana Valley and distance runner Nick-John Haiduc of Servite are the top county boys contending for state titles.

Carter, who finished second in the state meet as a sophomore, bruised a knuckle in his right hand in practice two weeks ago. He has a season-best mark of 62-4 3/4, but he threw only 59-11 in the Masters.

Peters lost for the first time this season to Travis Hannah of Hawthorne in the Masters. Peters has a season-best mark of 47.34 in the 400 meters.

Haiduc has a top mark of 1:53.97 in the 800 meters, but he has run the event only five times this year after competing in the 400 meters most of the season.

Final events are scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday.

Prep Notes Last year, Taft won the boys’ championship, with Quincy Watts having a hand in all 26 points. This time, Janeene Vickers may bring Pomona the girls’ title almost single-handedly. She enters competition today with the best time in the nation in the 100-meter hurdles (13.4) and the 300 hurdles (41.01) and the best time in the state in the open 100, a wind-aided 11.49. Angela Rolfe, a sophomore, gives the same kind of team credibility to L.A. Dorsey, which figures to challenge Pomona and city champion Locke, led by Kim McAllister and Debra Hamilton.

Forgotten in the wake of Watts’ outstanding performance last season--where he finished first in the 100, second in the 200 and ran a great anchor to get Taft second in the 400 relay--is that the Toreadors likely would not have won were it not for the decision by Eric and Mark Mastalir, the distance-running twins from Carmichael Jesuit, to run only one event each and go for record times. So instead of an expected 1-2 finish in the 1,600 and probably a 1-3 finish in the 3,200, which would have been worth 34 points, each ran once and won and got only 20 points for Jesuit, good for third. . . . Tom Richards of Santa Barbara San Marcos, who won the Southern Section 4-A pole vault title and will be competing today, is the son of former Olympian Bob Richards and the younger brother of Brandon Richards, the national outdoor prep record-holder in the event. Brandon, who attended San Marcos as a senior after transferring from Waco, Tex., now competes for UCLA.

Times staff writer Scott Howard-Cooper contributed to this story.