State Track : Leaders Hope Form Holds Here : Noon Has Best Shot; Jorgensen Goes for 3

For state leaders Brent Noon, Lenny McGill and Kira Jorgensen, the challenge is to stay on top. For other state track and field championship meet participants from the San Diego Section, it is to get there.

Either way, the challenge starts this afternoon at Cerritos College with the state preliminaries, field events at 3 and the running events at 5. The finals begin Saturday at 5 p.m.

Jorgensen, the Rancho Buena Vista senior, will arrive in a defensive mood; for two consecutive years, she has run away with the girls’ 1,600-meter championship.

To win again, she will have to beat defending state 3,200 champion Karen Hecox of West Covina South Hills. Jorgensen has the national best of 4:53.66, but Hecox is right behind at 4:53.94. Jorgensen will also run the 3,200, in which she has a season best of 10:34.7 (behind Reyna Cervantes of Montebello, 10:32.89; Hecox has run 10:41.23).

Noon, the Fallbrook junior who has used the 12-pound shotput to gain widespread acclaim--and the national lead of 69-feet-8 1/4--is nearly seven feet ahead of his nearest competitor.

But winning the event in which he was third last year is secondary for Noon. What he really wants, and what has been long anticipated, is a throw of more than 70 feet.

“I’m on track to throw 70 feet for (this weekend),” Noon said after last week’s section finals, where he threw 66-7 despite being bothered by stomach pain. “But I may never throw 69 feet again.”

Noon will also compete in the discus, in which his 185-4 is fifth best in the state.

McGill’s state lead in the triple jump is a bit more precarious than Noon’s in the shot; in fact, he is only an inch ahead of his nearest competitor, Phouphet Singbandith of Magnolia.

(Noon’s nation-leading shotput and McGill’s triple jump, third best in the United States this season, were set at the Palomar League dual meet May 4 at Fallbrook.)

Now, about the lesser-known athletes:

Pole vaulter Brian Chase of Granite Hills has been showing upward mobility all season and is an inch away from the state leaders.

Chase is officially third with a vault of 15-5. The two ahead of him, Tim Pust and Shane Woll, both of Modesto, are tied at 15-6.

The feeling among coaches is that the winning vaulter will have to go higher than 15-6.

“But pole vaulting is a funny thing,” warned Jim Hunter, Chase’s vault coach. “It all depends on what the wind is like and what the competition is like.

“Brian’s capable of going over 15-6.”

Long jumper Jerome Price of University City is a 1 1/2 inches from the state lead; besides the first-place medal, Price will be going for a season-long goal of 25 feet. His best is 24-6 1/4.

Price says 25-2 is not an unreasonable expectation. “I won’t be doing any running events,” he explained. “I usually run the 100, 200 and the (400) relay. So (Saturday) I shouldn’t be as tired as I usually am.”

Distance runner Francis O’Neill will go for titles in the 1,600 and the 800--and possibly the 3,200, depending on how he has left. O’Neill is fourth in the state in the 800 (1:52.16), and is fifth in the 1,600 (4:12.89). He finished fourth in the state 1,600 last year.