Orange Glen’s McGill Warms Up to Task : Junior’s 47-6 Triple Jump is Second-Best in the County This Season

Saturday’s Balboa Stadium Relays were the first since the only other Balboa Relays--in 1975. Nostalgia welled inside some, including Tony Ricketts, an assistant coach at Orange Glen High School who competed at Balboa in 1972 and remembers the state championship there in 1975.

But if you had asked a Ricketts pupil, triple jumper Lenny McGill, how he felt about rejuvenating the meet, he might have told you to take a flying leap--because he sure wasn’t about to.

It was raining. It was cold. It was windy.

McGill, who had instead wanted to jump at the prestigious Mt. San Antonio College Relays Saturday, told Ricketts he didn’t want to compete.

Ricketts told McGill, “It’s going to get sunny.”

Sure enough, the sun emerged.

Though a headwind remained, McGill put together a 47-foot 6-inch triple jump--second-best in San Diego County this year and his best ever. The mark represented another point in McGill’s steady ascension.

He went 41-11 as a freshman, 45-10 as a sophomore and 46-11 last week.

“My goal is to jump at least 50,” said McGill, a 6-foot 2-inch, 16-year-old junior who also plays varsity basketball and football.

Fifty feet may not be enough to win the San Diego Section title at Balboa. The current section leader with a 48-7 jump--La Jolla’s Charles Huff, whose sore hamstring kept him from facing McGill Saturday--”easily could clear 50,” Ricketts said. Also, the Balboa track, laid last June as part of an $850,000 renovation, features “the best ramp I’ve ever been on,” McGill said.

And McGill’s ratio on the hop, step and jump will improve. He usually averages nearly 16 feet on each portion of the event. Ricketts said a faster approach eventually will yield an 18-foot hop.

“His potential is limitless, as far as I’m concerned,” Ricketts said. “He will go over 50.”

McGill credited videotapes of Willie Banks with improving his distances. Banks, who attended Oceanside High with Ricketts, holds the section record of 51-3.

McGill, whose jump helped Orange Glen finish second to Mt. Miguel (total distance on best jumps of three competitors for each school), wasn’t the only junior who indicated he might be jumping for joy come the section meet.

Joseph Buchanon of San Marcos broke Pat Hedge’s school record by clearing 6-7 in the high jump as the Knights won that event.

He also came within an inch of this year’s best in the section, by Brian Negrete of El Cajon Valley. Like McGill, Buchanon--a nephew of former San Diego State and NFL standout Willie Buchanon--has been jumping better each week. Thursday, he went 6-6 for a then-personal best.

“This was good for Joseph,” San Marcos Coach Ken Franklin said. “When he comes back (to Balboa), he’ll know he can do it again.”

Others indicated they could win upon returning to Balboa were Lynn Patrick of Patrick Henry, who cleared 5-8, a quarter-inch off her section best this year; Laura Hughes of Orange Glen, who put the shot 40-4 1/2 and threw the discus 126-3 1/2 as her team won both events; and Glen Reyes of Orange Glen, who went 23-2 1/2 in his team’s long jump victory.

Patrick Henry won both Division IV team titles; Oceanside’s boys won the Division I title and its girls finished second.

Other boys’ team winners were El Capitan (III) and Castle Park (II). Bonita Vista (I), La Jolla (II) and Helix (III) won girls’ team titles.