HIGH SCHOOL SECTION PLAYOFFS : TRACK FINALS : Jones Makes the Grade in Hurdles

One wouldn’t expect that taking a job at a supermarket would pay off in the form of two San Diego Section championships. But for Morse’s Chris Jones, working at the 32nd Street Naval Base commissary did exactly that.

Jones credited a slight grade up which he must push grocery carts as the reason for his victories in the 110-meter high hurdles and the 300 intermediate hurdles in Saturday’s section track and field finals at Poway High.

Jones was one of five multiple winners on the day.

The others were Allison Dring, a sophomore from Mt. Carmel who won the 200 in 24.38, the 400 in 54.29 (a section record) and anchored both Mt. Carmel relay teams to first place; Fallbrook High’s Brent Noon, who only threw once in the discus but came away with the best heave of the day, 189-feet-9, and also won the shot put at 74-10 1/2; Oceanside’s Angela Sims, who went 18-1 in the long jump, then 38-3 3/4 in the triple jump, and Milena Glusac, a freshman at Fallbrook who won the 1,600 (4:45.58) and later the 3,200 (11:10.79).

The difference between Jones and the others is that Jones was not expected to challenge for the lead in either race.

The senior stood in the shadows of either Castle Park’s Eric Bell or Escondido’s Keith Williams all season long. Bell had been winning every invitational 110 hurdles race while Williams was doing the same in the 300s.

Seems they both peaked too early. Or maybe they just didn’t have the right after-school job.

In the finals, Jones edged Bell in the 110s, 14.38 to 14.43, and later took first in the 300s by a half second, 37.89 to the 38.39 turned in by Mira Mesa’s Benny Lewis. Williams, still nursing a strained right hip flexor, finished third at 38.71.

“When I get off practice, I go straight to work,” Jones said. “And when I get there there will be a big long line of carts and I have to push them up a hill, sometimes as many as 50 carts. I’ve been doing that since February and that’s when my time started dropping.”

A side note to Dring’s four-star day was that by anchoring Mt. Carmel to victory in the 400 relay, she helped snap a string of 12 consecutive championships by Morse. Morse was actually in the lead until the final leg, when Dring took off. Mt. Carmel finished at 47.92. Lincoln ended up in second at 48.06, and Morse was third at 48.09.

“It was some streak, “ said Mac Donald, who has coached the relay team since 1982. “I never like to say never, but I doubt any school will ever be able to match it.”

Still, the Morse girls can look to a future. By finishing third, they qualified for the state meet, the preliminaries for which will be held Friday at Cerritos College in Norwalk. Too, the four girls--freshman Monica Henderson, junior Ayanna Bennett, freshman Aja Fitch and junior Nichelle Milner--are all underclassmen and will have a chance to begin a new streak next year.

Noon, a senior, looked at his effort in the shot both with disappointment and encouragement. He was disappointed because he did not near the official high school record of 77-0, which has been Noon’s goal for the past three years.

“I’m just looking for that one throw,” Noon said. “I don’t even want to PR anymore (his personal record, state best and this year’s national leading mark is 76-2). The only thing I’ll be happy with is 77-0.”

He was encouraged because he was able to throw over 70 feet on just two days of practice. He had to take off the previous eight days because of a strained left hamstring.

Glusac’s efforts belie the image she portrays off the track. She is a freshman, stands only 5-foot-4 1/2, weighs 87 pounds and wears braces.

Just where does she conjure up so much valor?

On this day she took a migraine headache that had been with her for three days into the meet, shrugged it off when it came time to run and beat girls with three more years of experience.

“I just had to go out there and be tough,” she said.

Oh.

Perhaps the best race of the day was the boys’ 100, in which Southwest sophomore Riley Washington got out of the blocks almost at the same time as the gun and glided to the tape in 10.53, a meet record. The top four finishers, in fact, finished under what had previously stood as this year’s section best. Darnay Scott of Kearny finished second in 10.69, Teddy Lawrence of Morse was third in 10.70 and Lincoln’s Scott Hammond was fourth at 10.70. Washington was the only one of the quartet to have run under 10.75 before Saturday; he had a best of 10.72.

San Pasqual’s Erin Blunt set a meet record in the 300 low hurdles at 43.10 but lost the 100 lows to rival Kim Dill of Poway, who finished in 14.19 to Blunt’s 14.26.

It was the third consecutive year Dill, a senior, has won that event, and though Blunt had a better time coming into the meet, Dill was not about to bow.

“I wanted to leave San Diego saying, ‘Yeah, I won the 100 hurdles three times,’ ” Dill said. “I didn’t want to give it over to Erin yet.”