She Doesn’t Like to Lose : Santa Monica’s Felice Lipscomb Might Not Be the Favorite in the Hurdles, But Don’t Bet Against Her

Though Santa Monica High School’s Felice Lipscomb is the defending state champion in the 100-meter hurdles, she should probably not be considered the favorite in the 60-yard high hurdles in the prep section of the 31st Sunkist Invitational on Jan. 19 at the Sports Arena.

She has never run indoors, never run the 60-yard hurdles, has a long stride that could be a handicap in such a short race, and one of her opponents, Keri Sanchez of Santa Teresa, may be quicker out of the starting blocks than Lipscomb.

But don’t bet against Lipscomb. She doesn’t like to lose.

Losing a race is how she got into organized running in the first place. As an eighth-grader at Lincoln Junior High School, she was beaten in a school race by Margaret Chai, then a ninth-grader. That didn’t sit well with Lipscomb, who decided on that day that she would go out for the Santa Monica High team when she became a ninth-grader.

When Lipscomb got into the ninth grade, Mike Griswold, who coaches boys and girls track at Santa Monica, came to Lincoln one day to talk students into competing for the high school. That was before the high school had its own freshman class, and junior high ninth-graders were then permitted to compete for the high school teams.

Griswold didn’t have to do much talking to Lipscomb.

She came to the high school for tryouts and ran a 300-meter race to see what she could do against older girls. She did plenty.

“I beat everybody,” Lipscomb said, adding that her victory went a long way toward making up for her loss to Chai at Lincoln. “That’s all I was worried about,” she said. “(Chai) beat me, and that really bothered me.”

After the tryout, Lipscomb joined Chai as a member of the Santa Monica team, and Lipscomb was seldom bothered again by losing.

In her first year she was the league champion in both the 100-meter dash and the 100 hurdles. She has improved in every event she has entered.

Why did Griswold ask her to run the hurdles, an event that has since become her specialty?

He said he needed a hurdler and that she reminded him of two of his former hurdlers who had had success in that event: Veronica (Ronnie) Moore and Rhonda Madison.

“Felice was long and lean and took to (hurdling) so naturally,” he said, that he knew he had made a sound decision. Lipscomb rewarded him for his judgment last spring when she won the 100 hurdles as a junior in a strong 13.69 at the state meet, finishing ahead of Kwani Stewart of Yuba City and Sanchez, in that order.

Griswold said that Sanchez “explodes out of the blocks and will be real hard to beat” in the 60 hurdles at the Sunkist meet. But he said Sanchez had that same explosive start in the 100 hurdles at the state, and “Felice led from start to finish.”

Lipscomb, a 5-foot-6 inch, 110-pound senior, is nothing if not versatile.

At last year’s CIF-Southern Section meet, Santa Monica finished second to Muir largely because of Lipscomb’s efforts. She not only won the 100 hurdles but ran a 56.1 anchor leg in the 1,600-meter relay, leading her team to third place as Muir won that event.

Griswold said that Lipscomb had had “virtually no training” for the mile relay, having run it only three times.

In addition to being excellent in hurdles and at 400 meters, Lipscomb has run the 100 meters in a wind-aided 11.9 and has a best time of 12 flat in that event, a race that Griswold said is not made to order for her.

“She has the longest natural stride of any female I’ve ever seen, which is not the most efficient stride for the 100,” he said.

It is not the most efficient stride for the 60 hurdles, either, and Griswold said Felice is working on her acceleration for the Sunkist.

“She doesn’t really accelerate until the middle of (the 60 hurdles). By the time she accelerates, the race is nearly over. So we have to work on getting out of the blocks.”

There are other things she has to work on if she wants to get her times down to the low 13s in the 100 hurdles.

Griswold said Lipscomb is working with weights and running 300 meters in training in an effort to get stronger.

Although she is “real strong and doesn’t tire easily,” he said, she has to get “stronger muscularly to get to the first hurdle faster. She has to get stronger cardiovascularly because that helps at the end of any sprinting race.”

She also has to concentrate on getting her feet down quickly after she goes over a hurdle, on shortening her stride on starts and on trying to keep her arms under control in a hurdles race.

Because she has great natural speed, Lipscomb likes to think of the hurdles as a sprint. “Once I’ve got my foot down on the ground,” she said, “I don’t think of it as a hurdles race, but as a 100 with obstacles you have to get out of the way.”

There don’t seem to be many obstacles on her way to becoming a college track star. Among dozens of schools that have expressed an interest in her are UCLA, USC, Berkeley, Arizona State, Arizona, Georgetown and Syracuse.