Hester Quadruples His Fun in City Track Prelims

Russell Hester is not one to opt for the easy way out, as he proved Thursday in the City Section track and field preliminaries at Birmingham High.

The Van Nuys High senior won his 400-meter heat despite the fact he had only to finish among the top four to advance to the City semifinals Thursday. But it was Hester’s style of running that was most impressive.

He lingered in fifth place with 160 meters remaining before starting a tremendous sprint to catch leader Todd Townsend of Dorsey with 50 meters to go. He won in a personal-best 49.36 seconds, and Townsend was second in 49.74.

Heading into the final stretch, Hester trailed Townsend by 10 meters.

“He has incredible strides,” said Brenda Cortez, Hester’s personal coach. “He conserves his energy until he gets to the 200, and from there he runs the 200-meter dash.”

The 200 was Hester’s specialty until he took up the 400 this season. He has run the event only four times.

The Valley Pac-8 Conference 400 champion, Hester also ran a lifetime-best 22.48 in the 200 Thursday to finish fourth and qualify for next week’s semifinals.

And as if that wasn’t enough, Hester anchored Van Nuys’ 400 (44.24) and 1,600 (3:32.12) relay teams to fourth- and third-place finishes in their respective heats.

Hester was not scheduled to run in the longer relay, but when he pulled out of the long jump because of time constrictions, he decided to give the race a try.

“They didn’t give me enough break time,” Hester said. “Everything’s all crunched up.”

Time was not much of a factor for Birmingham pole vaulter Howard Schrier, who needed only one attempt at 12 feet to advance to the semifinals.

Schrier, who has vaulted 14 feet this season, passed on the first six heights (9 feet 6 inches through 11-6), leaving the junior with some spare time.

“I was just sitting around there all day freezing . . . and only took one jump,” said Schrier, who cleared the bar by almost two feet, according to Birmingham Coach Scott King.

Van Nuys’ Feltina Means, a state qualifier in the 300 hurdles and long jump last year, advanced to the semifinals in four events. Means, a senior, won the first heat of the 300 low hurdles (47.44) and bounded 35 feet to take the triple jump. She also timed 16.28 to finish second in heat two of the 100 hurdles and long jumped 17-3, good for second.

Birmingham distance runner Brian Gastelum logged a pair of easy wins in the 1,600 and 3,200.

Gastelum timed 4:23.98 in the 1,600 to avenge a loss to Monroe junior Bobby Wiley, who placed second in 4:27.36. In the 3,200, Gastelum outdistanced Martin Morales of Wilson, 9:40.61 to 9:45.31.

The Birmingham senior currently leads City 800 and 1,600 runners with times of 1:54.68 and 4:09.87, respectively.

Sylmar’s Jerome Casey and Girmar Johnson, 1-2 in the 100 at the Valley Pac-8 Conference finals, each finished fourth in their respective heats. Johnson timed 11.27 and Casey 11.44. Both ran legs on the Spartans’ third-place 400 relay team (43.92).