Cougars May Run Away With Mobil Meet : Standout Freshmen, Sophs Will Sub for Missing Top Runners

Despite competing without its standouts today and Saturday in the first Mobil Track Classic at West Torrance High School, Hawthorne High will likely stand out.

Hawthorne’s big guns--sprinters Curtis Conway and Travis Hannah of the boys team and Keisha Marvin and Kee-Sha Adams of the girls team--won’t compete because they’ll be looking to set 800-meter and mile-relay records in Sunday’s National Pathmark Indoor Meet at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

The five-time consecutive state champion Cougars will send their second-tier varsity athletes and a frosh-sophomore squad to West. Hawthorne frosh-sophomore teams haven’t lost a CIF Southern Section league dual meet since 1978, so the underclassmen probably will come home with a hefty share of the medals.

About 2,700 athletes from 27 schools throughout Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties will compete. The four Torrance high schools, Bishop Montgomery, El Segundo, Leuzinger, Mira Costa, Narbonne, Palos Verdes, Redondo, Rolling Hills and San Pedro will join Hawthorne as South Bay entrants.

Frosh-sophomore teams will compete in relays today at 1. Varsity competition begins Saturday morning at 9. Individual events for all teams will be held both days.

Meet director and West Coach Fred Petersen hopes Hawthorne doesn’t dominate but said the Cougars probably will.

Getting an early jump on the competition puts Hawthorne at the head of the pack, according to Cougars Coach Kye Courtney.

“We try to get going early,” Courtney said. “Our freshmen and sophomores have been to 10 all-comers meets before the other schools have started practice. That’s what makes us better.”

A startling array of speed, strength and numbers helps Hawthorne stampede opponents in Ocean League competition. Competitors at the invitational Mobil Classic and Pathmark meet offer tough tests that prepare the Cougars for the ultimate--the Southern Section 4-A and CIF state championships.

Last week in Rio Mesa, after minimal preparation, Hawthorne’s frosh-sophomore team beat 40 schools for the Orange Santa Ana Relay championship. Marvin and three others ran a meet record 1.43 in the 800 relay.

“We know we have the talent and the coaching,” said Marvin, a junior transfer from Banning who will run the 800 and 1,600 relays at Yale, “so it’s all up to us to put it together. We should be at the top all the time.”

Junior Dean Dunbar, a transfer from Houston who had read about Hawthorne’s reputation in Track and Field magazine and watched the Cougars shine for several years at the Texas Relays, is contributing to the Hawthorne mystique with 14.4 speed in the 110 hurdles.

“When we walk into a stadium,” said Dunbar, “the first thing other teams say is, ‘That’s Hawthorne and we gotta beat them.’ You go to Hawthorne, you are supposed to be the best.”

At West, Dunbar, Cougar Keith Pouncey and Narbonne’s Jeff Judge will battle in the 110 and 330 hurdles. Leading the field in the girls 100 are 12-second sprinter Dee Dee Wheeler from Hawthorne, Redondo’s Page Williams and Lauren Chang from Rolling Hills.

The girls 1,500 includes Hawthorne’s Rhonda Kennerson, Carolyn Plier from Mira Costa and Palos Verdes’ Leslie Fill and Tracy Goodrich. The boys 1,500 includes Josh Whitney and Kurt Breskin from Torrance, Bret Conkling from South and John McKivett from Rolling Hills.

West has potential medalists in half-milers Mike Ward and Chantelle Pousson. Pousson will also run the 400. Palos Verdes’ Andrea and Ashley Black, sisters, and defending Southern Section two-mile champion David Scudamore could dominate the individual distance events.

Though Anthony Jefferson, a Times two-time all-star for the Leuzinger football team, could challenge in the 100 and make Leuzinger tough in relays, the Olympians’ strength is in field events.

Leuzinger senior Kim Wallace and juniors Bridget Dale and Michelle Allen took fifth in the triple jump at the CIF 2-A championships last season. Each has jumped more than 35 feet. Leuzinger Coach Dennis James said a medal is in sight for the triple jumpers and possibly for pole vaulters Tiashon Allen and Tim Camillo.

Hawthorne has capable entrants in the field events, but the problem for strong field and distance teams is that Hawthorne usually finishes them off with blowouts in sprint competition.

“We know our strength is gonna be the short stuff,” said Courtney. “Our problems are usually technical ones with the pole vault, the shot put and the discus.”

To counter deficiencies, “we coach for what we don’t have,” Courtney said. “This May I’ll make up a team roster for next year. We’ll look for holes, and we’ll go around school recruiting kids for that.”

Courtney often persuades speedsters like Hannah and Conway from the football team to run track. Courtney saw Hannah’s potential two years ago when the senior receiver ran an all-out 400 and collapsed in practice. Hannah, who collected 10 touchdown receptions last fall, persuaded Conway to stick with track after the quarterback became skeptical when he found track workouts painful and tiring as a freshman.

“But it started to seem fun at the state meet that year,” said Conway, a junior who last season threw for 1,513 yards and 18 touchdowns and rushed for 893 yards and 21 touchdowns. “We went on a couple of trips and that really got me liking track.”

Conway usually runs the anchor leg with Hannah running second in the 800 relay. The two trade positions in the mile relay in which Hawthorne set the national high school record (about 3.12) two months ago. Both said running track improves their speed and stamina for football.

Hannah, who Courtney said is the best quarter-miler in California and second best in the country, probably will attend USC next fall on a football scholarship that allows him to run track.

These days at Hawthorne, however, it’s difficult to tell which sport is more important. Three days ago Hawthorne students introduced visiting El Segundo High students to Hannah as “track star and state champ Travis Hannah.”

“It’s nice to have that,” Hannah said. “It feels good.”