Southern Section Masters Track and Field Championships : Edison’s Carter, Other County Athletes Strong-Arm the Competition

Kaleaph Carter of Edison High School won both the shotput and the discus to highlight many outstanding Orange County performances Friday night at the Southern Section Masters track and field meet at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

Carter, a senior, won the shotput with a toss of 62-feet 5 1/2-inches, edging rival Rick Fuller of Arroyo, second at 60-3.

But Carter, who won the shotput and placed third in the discus in last Saturday’s Southern Section 4-A final, was most pleased with his discus performance.

His toss of 178-3--the final of his six throws--was a personal best by almost five feet.

“Today I walked into the ring and felt really rough,” Carter said. “I wasn’t smooth. I was over-rotating my hip motion and basically not in a groove.”

Carter, whose series went 151-9, 157-8, 162-7, 157-10, 151-7 and 178-3, defeated Arroyo’s Fuller, who was second at 174-9.

Carter will lead the Southern California entrants in the shot and discus at the state track and field meet June 3-4 at Cerritos College. The top five finishers in each event Friday night qualified for the state meet.

Allison Franke of Canyon, the two-time defending Southern Section 4-A champion in the discus, defended her title in the Masters meet with a mark of 158-4, a career best by almost three feet.

Franke’s mark ranks her second nationally. Janet Hill of Washington High (Shreveport, La.) leads the nation at 174-10.

In the boys’ 1,600, Jim Geerlings of Newport Harbor made up for what he called a “so-so season,” winning the event in 4:09.54, a career best by six seconds. It also is the best time in the county this season.

Geerlings, the 1987 Southern Section 3-A 1,600-meter champion, placed third last Saturday in 4:17.02, the slowest qualifying time going into the Masters.

Corona del Mar’s Jim Robbins, the 3-A champion, worked his way from a boxed-in seventh position during the mid-portion of the race to third, finishing in 4:10.74, a career best by one second.

Anthony Hale of Garden Grove ran a strong final 100 meters to win the 300-meter hurdles in 37.89, improving his Southern Section 3-A winning time of 38.13.

Pasadena’s Kevin Dallas, the top-seeded entrant, led the race through the first 100 meters, but Hale took off after the fifth hurdle and beat second-place finisher Tom Richards of San Marcos (38.44) by almost a second.

In the boys’ 110-meter hurdles, Marina’s Marc Kallick rode a great start to a second-place finish in 14.47. William Henry of Arroyo Grande won the event in 14.39.

Mater Dei’s George Lynch, who placed seventh in the 300 hurdles, qualified for the state meet with a fifth-place finish in 14.61.

In a close girls’ 100-meter hurdle race, Suzanne Kerho of Mission Viejo accomplished her season’s goal--breaking into the low 14s--with a 14.16 clocking for second place. Sharon Swift of Eisenhower won in 14.15 and Hawthorne’s Sharon Edmunds was third in 14.17.

Esperanza set a school record en route to a fourth-place finish in the girls’ 400-meter relay. The Aztec team of Sherrie Buente, Danielle Reaves, Emily Thiebaud and Celese Heron, clocked a 48.19 effort.

Reaves also qualified in the girls’ 300-meter hurdles as she placed second in 44.30. In the same race, Thiebaud just missed qualifying as she placed sixth in 44.73.

In the boys’ 3,200 meters, Marina’s Shanon Winkelman led the pack that included Santa Ana Valley’s Jimmy Rodriguez, Corona del Mar’s Eddie Lavelle and Dana Hills’ Javier Barrera and Steve Niednagel through the first 1,600 meters in 4:31.5.

Winkelman picked up the pace, running the fifth lap in 69.5 seconds and sixth in 69.1 seconds. With one lap to go, a pack of five--Winkelman, Rodriguez, Lavelle, Scott Hemple of Walnut and David Scudamore of Palos Verdesz--began to sprint for the finish.

Scudamore, the 1987 Southern Section cross-country champion, overpowered all down the final stretch to win in 9:02.38. Lavelle was second in a season county-leading mark of 9:02.90; Rodriguez was third (9:03.06); Hemple fourth (9:03.28) and Winkelman fifth (9:03.57).

Barrera (sixth, 9:06.74) and Niednagel (ninth, 9:14.07) ran to lifetime bests, but missed qualifying for the state meet.

Meet Notes

Esperanza’s John Carrow ran the county’s fastest 800 meters in placing fourth at 1:52.92. The battle of the county’s best girls’ 1,600-meter relay team came down to a wild finish for third between Woodbridge and Corona del Mar.

Woodbridge, which ran a school record 3:51.57 last Saturday to win the 2-A title, placed third in 3:52.46. Corona del Mar, 3:51.49 last Saturday, was fourth in 3:52.82. Esperanza was seventh in 3:58.26.

Other county athletes to qualify for next week’s state meet are Mission Viejo’s Lisa Fager, second in the triple jump in 38-6 1/2; Edison’s David Noel, Newport Harbor’s R.W. Henson, fourth and fifth, respectively, in the pole vault at 15-0; Mission Viejo’s Sheri Bertell (fourth in the 200 at 24.98); Mission Viejo’s Eric Pryce (fifth in high jump at 6-6) and Los Alamitos’ J.J. Cisneros and Orange Lutheran’s Jason Neben, third and fourth in the long jump at 22-4.