Price Doesn’t Need Wind’s Help to Jump 25-5

This week, University City’s Jerome Price didn’t have the wind at his back, but he did have some spring in his step.

The senior long jumper officially became the national high school leader in the event by going 25-feet-5 at the Sundevil Invitational Saturday at Mt. Carmel High.

It was a national best this season, but to Price, it was just another jump, a half-inch from the section record (by Doyle Steele of San Diego High in 1966) and short of Price’s wind-aided 25-8 1/2 a week earlier at the Arcadia Invitational.

“I feel kind of weak today,” Price said. “I didn’t get enough sleep last night.”

Apparently, dreams were being pushed aside by day dreams of what he might accomplish. For Price, national bests, section records and his goal of hitting 26 feet aren’t just dreams--they’re coming true.

Price feels he’s close to attaining his goal. Ask him what’s next, and he’ll tell you, “26 feet.”

Ask him if there are any flaws in his technique that need alteration, and he answers, “no.”

Another national leader from San Diego, shot putter Brent Noon, had a horrible day by his standards.

How horrible? Well Noon’s best effort, 70-8, was 14-5 better than John Frank of Bakersfield.

If 70 feet can be said to be a bad effort, then Noon, whose best is 73-5 3/4, indeed proved to be mortal.

“It was probably my worst day throwing all year,” Noon said.

Perhaps the most exciting race came before the girls’ 1,600-meters, when favorite Milena Glusac of Fallbrook had to run from the start to the other side of the track, out the stadium and onto an adjacent field, where numbers were being handed out.

Glusac got back as the umpires called the girls onto the track, joined her competitors on the line and predictably fell way behind.

Then, with leader Amy Robles of Woodbridge well into the final turn, Glusac found a second wind and began to kick.

With 40 meters to go, it was apparent that Glusac, who initially wasn’t going to be allowed to run because she checked in too late, was about to win.

Glusac overtook Robles just before the finish, placing first at 5:17.48 to Robles’ 5:18.32.

A surprise? It was just surprising to Glusac she was allowed to race at all.

“When I came down to check in they said ‘You can’t run, you’re too late, all the other girls already left.’ ”

Fallbrook coaches conferred with Dennis McClanahan, meet director and coach at Mt. Carmel. McClanahan apparently decided that disqualifying Glusac was no way to treat a freshman and told her to go to the start. But she never got a number and had to run back.

That, she said, may have given her an extra push.

“It might have pumped my adrenaline,” she said.

Glusac didn’t blame her relatively slow time (she has a best of 5:14.1) on the confusion but rather on a large scrape on the back of her left thigh that she said bothered her during the race.

“Thursday, I was walking my dog down a canyon near my house,” she started to explain.

A reporter interrupted. Uh, what kind of dog?

“A Great Dane.”

How much does it weigh?

“A hundred and 75 pounds.”

And how much do you weigh?

“Eighty-seven pounds.”

Get the picture? Glusac wasn’t so much walking the dog down the canyon as much as it was dragging her.

Next time, she said, she’s going to let go of the leash.