Notre Dame Rolls Over Alemany

With the Northridge/Alemany Relays just around the corner, many of the top athletes at Thursday’s Alemany-Notre Dame track meet at Notre Dame High were trying to preserve their energy for big efforts at Saturday’s event at Cal State Northridge.

Most kept one eye on the results and another on the calendar.

Tom Parker of Notre Dame, the runner-up in the pole vault in last year’s state championships, won his specialty with a vault of 15 feet. He made only four attempts, clearing the bar at 15-0 on his second attempt and missing two attempts at 15-6 before calling it a day.

“I just wasn’t motivated enough to jump real high today,” said Parker, who has a personal best of 16-1 and has cleared 16-0 in three meets this season. “I guess I was saving myself for Saturday.”

Parker’s teammate, Mike Glaze, the third-place finisher in the state Division II cross-country championships, expressed identical sentiments after winning the 800 meters in a relatively slow time of 2 minutes, 2.8 seconds.

“The time wasn’t real great,” he said. “But Saturday is when it counts. That’s when I want to run well.”

With Parker, Glaze and Brian Charles leading the way, the Knights (2-0) routed Alemany, 106-20, in the Del Rey League opener.

Charles won the 100- (11.1) and 200-meter dashes (23.2).

Alemany (1-2, 0-1 in league meets) was led by Mike Thomas, who won the 1,600 meters in 4:33.0. The Indians were not expected to mount much of an attack even when healthy, but they were hampered further by the loss of their top sprinter, Tony Borquez, who aggravated a knee injury earlier this week.

The Indians’ Lisa Gill will also compete at Northridge, but she could not relax because the Alemany girls’ team was locked in a fierce battle with Notre Dame.

Gill, the defending Southern Section 1-A Division champion in the triple jump, won four events as Alemany (3-0) defeated Notre Dame, 60-49.

The victory raised Alemany’s San Fernando Valley League record to 2-0 and dropped Notre Dame to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in league competition.

“She’s incredible,” Notre Dame Coach Jon Mack said. “She’s got to be the most talented female track athlete in the Valley area. She probably could have won 10 events today if she could enter that many.”

National interscholastic rules prohibit athletes from competing in more than four events in one meet.

Gill, who scored 4,256 points in the heptathlon last year, put her versatility to good use, winning the 100-meter low hurdles (15.9), the high jump (5-2), the long jump (16-11) and the triple jump (36-).

“She’s still not in great shape,” Alemany Coach Randy Smith said. “However, she’s jumping pretty well at this stage of the season. She still has a long ways to go in the hurdles, but she’s coming along.”

Gill’s teammate, Michelle Lovejoy, was also busy. She won the 100 and 200 meters in 12.7 and 26.9 and anchored Alemany’s victorious 400-meter relay team (51.1).

Other winners for Alemany included Christy Blackwell in the 400 (61.1), Allison Avery in 800 (2:29.7) and Nikki Davis in the shotput (34-1).

Blackwell won a battle with Rocky Roberge of Notre Dame (61.7), who led the Valley area in 1987 with a 58.60 best.

Jenny Stewart led Notre Dame with second-place performances in the high jump, long jump and triple jump.