By Running Scared, a Star Is Born : Alemany’s Borquez Leaves Fears--and Records--in His Wake

He is the fastest sprinter in school history, but if not for fear of failure in another athletic endeavor, Tony Borquez might never have competed in track at Alemany High.

The school record-holder in the 100, 200 and 400 meters, Borquez jokes about it now, but his fear of being cut from the baseball team was no laughing matter when he was a freshman in 1986.

After playing on the freshman football team, Borquez intended to try out for the varsity baseball team as a pitcher, but he changed his mind at the last moment, going out for the track team instead.

“I guess I was afraid of what people would say if I didn’t make the team,” Borquez said. “I guess I was afraid of getting cut so I joined the track team.”

Three years later, the only ones with a phobia are opposing sprinters who have watched Borquez develop into one of the state’s most feared 400-meter runners--one who won the Southern Section 2-A Division 400 title last Saturday and will compete in the Masters meet Friday night at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

The top five finishers in each event will advance to the state championships at Cerritos next Friday and Saturday.

“That’s what we’ve been training for all year,” Alemany Coach Jon Mack said of the state meet. “That’s when he’ll go all out to win. It’s not important that he win at Masters, just qualify.”

Next week, however, Mack will pull out all the stops when Borquez makes his run at the state 400 title.

“He’ll be ready to run a lot faster than he has,” Mack said. “After tripling and quadrupling all season, his legs should be really rested for the state meet.”

The 2-A finals epitomized Borquez’s rigorous workload: He anchored the Indians’ 400-meter relay team to victory in 42.62 seconds, won the 400 in 48.21, placed third in the 200 in a personal best of 21.97, and anchored the 1,600 relay team to a seventh-place effort of 3 minutes, 25.23 seconds.

“He’s run three or four events a meet all season long because the team needed the points,” Mack said. “But the team part of the season is over for us now. Now it’s time for the individual part.”

For Borquez, that means a chance to run under 47.50 and perhaps challenge the 47-second barrier.

“I know I’ve still got some good races left in me,” said Borquez, who has signed a letter of intent to attend USC in the fall. “It’s just a matter of putting together all the pieces at the right time.”

Borquez, who has run a wind-aided 10.6 in the 100 meters, never contemplated that in his first three years at Alemany because he had never before analyzed the 400.

Now a devout student of the event, Borquez admits that he didn’t know what he was doing in his freshman and sophomore years and only had a vague idea of how to run the 400 as a junior when he ran 48.29, finished third in the 2-A meet and placed eighth in the state championships.

“I was pretty lost my first two years,” he said. “But I started to learn a little bit about the event as a junior. As I ran faster, I started to understand more about the event. . . . This year, I feel like I’m finally starting to learn how to run the race.”

With that knowledge has come the realization that the 400 requires more than physical talent.

“The whole race is so mental,” Borquez said. “You can lose the race before you start it if you don’t have confidence in yourself. You just have to have faith in yourself.

“You just have to run your own race. If you get too nervous inside, you forget what you’re doing out there and you won’t run well. . . . It’s a race that takes a lot of intelligence. That’s what I like about it.”

Borquez’s intelligence was evident on Saturday when Borquez gunned down David Stone of Arroyo Grande and Jerrald McCladdle of Centennial in the final 60 meters of the 400.

“He ran a great tactical race,” Mack said. “He could easily have gone out with those guys in the first 200, but he would have died in the homestretch just like they did.”

Characterized by Mack as a good student (3.0 grade-point average) and an excellent listener, Borquez has watched videotapes of other top high school 400 runners in an effort to improve his own performance.

His father Danny filmed the 400 at the Arcadia Invitational in April--which Albert Ransom of Montbello High in Denver won in 46.57--and Borquez has watched the tape several times.

“He (Ransom) was so relaxed and strong the whole race,” said Borquez, who placed third at Arcadia in a personal best of 47.96. “He showed me that you can go out strong and maintain that speed in the final 100. He showed me how to run the race.”

After running “51 something” in the 400 as a freshman and 50.2 as a sophomore, Borquez’s transformation from a good 400 sprinter into an elite one came during last year’s Mt. San Antonio College Relays in Walnut.

Entering the meet with a 50.2 best, Borquez ran a surprising 48.5 400 leg in the 1,600-meter relay on Friday night before winning the invitational 400 in 48.79 the next day.

“I didn’t really believe the relay split at first,” Borquez recalled. “But when I ran under 49 in the open race the next day, I knew it wasn’t a fluke. . . . That was probably the turning point for me as a sprinter. That’s when I started thinking about getting a college scholarship. Until then, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be that good.”

Any lingering doubts Borquez might have had were put to rest when he qualified for the Masters meet and then the state championships.

“Everything just kept falling my way,” Borquez said. “I just kept getting faster and faster. I didn’t really think I’d make it past Masters, but then I finished third. And once I got to state, I figured I’d get eliminated in the heats, but I won my race to make it to the finals.”

Content just to qualify for the state final last year, Borquez expects to accomplish much more as a senior.

“I want to break 47.5 and be as competitive as possible,” he said. “I want to be in the thick of things when we hit the final straight.”