Hawthorne Is Healthy for Title Defense

It doesn’t sound as if Hawthorne High senior sprinter Chris Alexander is getting his hopes up too high before Saturday’s Southern Section 4-A Division preliminaries at Gahr High in Cerritos, the first step in the Cougars’ defense of their state boys’ track and field title.

Last season, Alexander anchored Hawthorne’s 400- and 1,600-meter relay teams, which went undefeated with the exception of a disqualification in the 400 at the state meet.

“But right now, I don’t think we’ll do as well as we did last year in the relays,” said Alexander, who missed the season with a hamstring pull suffered in January.

However, Alexander pointed out that not doing as well--by the Cougars’ standards--can mean winning by a smaller margin. “As compared to other teams, I think we’ll still be on top,” he said.

Alexander’s cautious outlook stems from Hawthorne’s injury problems. The Cougars’ relay teams haven’t been intact all season, and they still won’t be intact in the Southern Section and state meets.

Junior Thomas Cole is out for the rest of the season, leaving Coach Kye Courtney undecided about who will run Hawthorne’s third leg. Injuries have forced untested sophomore Demond Smith to take over the first leg.

But the return of Alexander and junior Erik Allen, who is Hawthorne’s second-leg runner but missed much of this season’s dual-meet schedule with hamstring problems of his own, means that the Cougars have their two most important performers.

Alexander, who will be a running back for UCLA’s football team in the fall, was fifth in the 100 meters at the state meet last season, while Allen was fourth in the 200.

Courtney clearly is grateful that his standouts are back in time for the most meaningful events of the season. And, he said, the competition in the Bay League finals was crucial for Alexander and Allen to “get back in the swing of things.”

“If we were going into this meet without (Alexander and Allen running in) our previous meet, then we’d be hurting. With the other meet behind us, they’ll be ready.”

Courtney, who has guided Hawthorne to six state titles in seven years and three in a row, said he has been extra careful with Alexander and Allen, not wanting to rush them back or bring one back before the other. But with the season amounting to just a warm-up for his powerful team, Courtney has had no reason to rush them back.

Thus, Courtney said, his two top speedsters are fresh, focused and almost 100% healthy.

“They’ve been there before and know what to expect,” he said. “They’re ready to explode.”

Nevertheless, Courtney said, at this point his team doesn’t look as dominant as in other seasons.

“We don’t have the depth,” he said. “(Pasadena) Muir has a lot of depth, and I just don’t know how anybody is going to catch them.”

But Courtney isn’t counting his team out of the running for another state title, though some of his younger athletes are facing big-time pressure for the first time, including Smith, who is also a hurdler.

“We’ll have to have some help from the hurdler,” Courtney said when asked to offer an early assessment of his team’s chances at the state meet at Cerritos College on June 1-2. “That’s asking an awful lot of a sophomore.

“But if (Smith) does what he can do, maybe we can pull it off. We don’t have to win events; we can just get our seconds, thirds and fourths.”

Alexander took a couple of individual firsts at the Bay League meet. He ran the 100 meters in 10.86 seconds (wind-aided), off a bit from his best time of 10.6. But his time of 22.2 in the 200 equaled his career best.

Allen’s bests are 10.7 in the 100 and 22.0 in the 200.

Alexander said he considers himself to be “about 85% to 90%” healthy. “My only troubles could be in endurance, like in the (1,600-meter relay),” he added. “Speed-wise, I’m fine.”

Alexander shares his coach’s belief that getting last week’s meet under his belt was of vital importance.

“It felt good to break the ice,” he said. “But I expect to do a lot better this weekend and to continue to get better as I get back into it.”

Being a two-sport star, Alexander has the opportunity to approach track almost as a hobby. “I look at track as conditioning for football in the off-season,” he said. “And it’s definitely helped me a lot.”

Although he will also run track for the Bruins, Alexander’s commitment will be to UCLA football Coach Terry Donahue, who has always made it clear that there is only one sport for his players.

“Football comes first,” Alexander said of his college athletic plans. “I will play spring football, but whenever I have free time I’ll do track.”

He’s just hoping he won’t have injury-induced “free time,” as he’s had for four months this spring.

The Morningside girls should highlight the 400- and 1,600-meter relays at the Southern Section 2-A Division preliminaries at Gahr High on Friday afternoon. The Monarchs have the best time in the state this season in the 1,600 (3:48.6) and the fourth-best time in the 400 (47.72).

Similarly, the Hawthorne girls’ relay teams will be among the featured attractions at the 4-A preliminaries at Gahr on Saturday afternoon. The Cougars are just off Morningside’s pace with times of 47.78 in the 400 and 3:49.68 in the 1,600.

Carson’s Curtis Hawkins and Banning’s Terrence Campbell, two of the state’s top hurdlers, have been training together in preparation for the L.A. City Section quarterfinals at Birmingham High in Van Nuys this afternoon. The 110-meter high hurdles is the best event for both athletes, who have recorded times of 14.0 and 14.1 seconds, respectively, this season.

No one in the state has a better time than the two seniors. Campbell, who beat Hawkins by a tenth of a second in the 110-meter high hurdles and the 300-meter intermediate hurdles on Thursday at the Southern Pacific Conference championships, said their long-time competition has benefited both runners.

“It’s a good rivalry because we’re always pushing each other, trying to help each other out,” said Campbell, who helped the Pilots win the conference title. “I’m always running as fast as I can, but Hawkins is always right there next to me.”

Another Banning-Carson track rivalry takes place in the distance races, where Pilot junior Ramon Rendon and the Colts’ Steven Gonzales and Richard Raya have been competing with each other all season. The competition will continue in the City quarterfinals. So far, Gonzales, also a junior, has fared the best. In the 1,600 meters at the conference championships, he won in 4:30.0, with Raya and Rendon next at 4:31.7 and 4:37.0, respectively.

Raya, a senior, has a season-best time in the 1,600 meters of 4:25.97, No. 4 in the City Section. Gonzales ranks right behind at 4:28.7

Gonzales also won the 3,200 meters, with Rendon a step behind him for almost all of the race. Gonzales was able to pull away down the stretch and finished in 9:57.7.

After that race, Gonzales said it was typical of his battles with Rendon.

“Through the whole season, both of us have been competing for position, so I knew that he was going to be there,” said Gonzales, who is third in the City Section with a season best of 9:26.7 in the 3,200 meters. “But I’ve always out-kicked him, so I knew that I’d beat him.”

Gonzales said that although some runners are conserving energy and training lightly with big postseason meets coming up, he’s practicing harder than ever.

“I feel strong,” he said. “I’m just trying to build up and get my speed up so I can compete against the higher-ranked runners.”

Banning’s multipurpose track performer Lashette Molette is also on the way to the City quarterfinals after battling dehydration, the flu and strep throat since mid-April.

Despite feeling weak and having limited practice time prior to the conference championships, Molette had a busy and successful meet on Thursday as she won the 110-meter low hurdles, anchored the Pilots’ second-place 4x100-meter relay team, took fourth in the 200 meters and took fourth in the high jump.

Molette admitted she that was a bit dazed in the meet at Carson High, “rushing back and forth, doing everything.”

“I didn’t eat all day; I hit my head on the (high-jump) bar and had a swollen lip,” she said with a weary laugh. “But I have to keep my body in shape for this next week so I won’t get sick again and so I can run my best.”

Molette said there is a simple answer to her physical problems: “I haven’t been drinking enough water. I’ve been mostly drinking Gatorade.

“Paramedics told me that Gatorade doesn’t do you any good and even makes you more dehydrated.”

Well, there’s one product you’ll never see Lashette Molette endorsing.