SAN DIEGO COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK : Noon Practices to Perfect Records

In shot putting, the marks first come in practice and then in meets.

Thus, Brent Noon of Fallbrook High has reason for optimism. Noon said that a week ago in practice he threw 76 feet 9 inches, just three inches shy of the national high school record of 77-0 set by Michael Carter in 1979.

In competition at the Orange Glen Invitational Friday, Noon hit 74-4 to upgrade three standards he already held:

--The Section record, previously 71-4 1/4.

--The all-time state best, previously 73-5 3/4.

--This year’s national best, also previously 73-5 3/4.

Noon said his practice throw and the Orange Glen mark have given him confidence in pursuit of Carter’s record.

Noon employs the spin technique of Olympian Randy Barnes, who is training with Noon in Fallbrook. Noon has studied Barnes on videotape for three years.

“Now I can watch him in 3-D,” Noon said.

But the arrangement seems to be benefitting Barnes as well.

“It has given me some enthusiasm,” Barnes said of his visit with Brent, his mother Barbara, his father Jim and brother Brad. “When I came out here I felt like I was out of shape. I felt real slim. Now all of a sudden I’m putting on weight. When you’re in a situation like this, you work hard and don’t even notice.”

Barnes has been impressed by Brent’s training habits and by his family’s support.

“I’ve never seen a family so committed,” Barnes said. “And that’s what it takes. . . . They have had a real positive impact on me. They’re making it fun again.”

Jack McKeon, the Padre manager, and Bill Beck, McKeon’s assistant, scouted Christian High’s Tony Clark recently.

Clark was rated the sixth-best high school baseball prospect by Baseball America, but scouts say he is demanding a $225,000 signing bonus because he has already signed a basketball letter-of-intent with the University of Arizona.

“I like him,” McKeon said. “He reminds me of (New York Met outfielder Darryl) Strawberry.”

A sticky situation ended Mt. Carmel’s apparent 8-2 victory at San Dieguito on Friday. With two outs in the seventh inning and the bases loaded, Tony Sanchez was batting with a 1-2 count on him.

It was sticky because Sanchez had been removed for a pinch-runner after doubling in the sixth inning. At the end of the inning, he took his defensive position at first base, taking advantage of high school’s re-entry rule.

His coach, Jerry Clements, wasn’t sure that Sanchez had officially checked into the game when he went out to play defense in the top of the seventh inning.

“I called time and asked Tony if he had checked in, and he said no,” Clements said. “I turned and informed the umpire that Sanchez was replacing Brendon Yezbak (the pinch runner). The umpire turned, pulled out his card, made his entry, told Mt. Carmel and then told us to play ball.”

With Sanchez at bat in the seventh, Mt. Carmel Coach Sam Blalock emerged from his dugout to question umpire Gary Mickle. After the two discussed the situation, Mickle turned around and said the batter was out and the game was over.

“I said you can’t call a guy out upon re-entry,” recalled Clements. “(The umpire) said yes, you can under high school rules. I said, ‘Get your rule book and show me,’ and he said, ‘We don’t carry rule books,’ so I went into the dugout and got mine, gave it to him and said, ‘Show me.’ He looked up something and said there it is, and I said that’s not what it says. So I protested the game.”

You can’t protest an umpire’s judgment, but you can his interpretation of the rules. More to come.

Former Morse High star Lawrence West had 19 points but his Houston Continental team was defeated by Marathon Oil of Chicago, 115-114, in the championship of the USA Basketball Invitational Tournament in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Athletes in Action star Lorenzo Romar scored a three-point shot with four seconds left to give Marathon Oil its sixth title in 10 years.

That’s baseball. Torrey Pines, which won the AA Division of the Lions Tournament in April, won its first Palomar League game in seven tries Friday and is just 10-11 overall. Sweetwater, which won the AAA Division of the Lions, is 4-4 and tied for fourth in the Metro Conference but 16-6 overall.

Southwest went 2-9 in nonleague games but is tied for first in the Metro at 7-1. Mission Bay started 1-6 but won nine of 10 before losing Thursday to USDHS.

Staff writers John Geis, Martin Henderson and Jim Lindgren contributed to this story.