El Camino’s Lacy Trying to Clear Still Another Hurdle : Track: Freshman wants to prove he is in winning form after suffering knee injury in high school.

Aaron Lacy cleared the hurdles cleanly on the El Camino track time after time. His workout partner occasionally smacked his left foot against the hurdle’s edge, but not Lacy. He brought his knee to his chest every time although he was clearly exhausted.

After completing the grueling drills, Lacy ran several sprint heats before taking a cool-down lap and collapsing on the track’s grass infield.

A coach once told Lacy nothing comes easy and the El Camino freshman has learned that firsthand. He has overcome a career-threatening knee injury and is presently one of the state’s top community college hurdlers.

The former Gardena High standout is undefeated in the 110-meter hurdles this season and in the 400-meter hurdles--a race he has only competed in three times--he is 2-1. He’s rated No. 1 in Southern California in the 110 hurdles and ranks among the state’s leaders in the 400 hurdles.

El Camino Coach Bill Moreno says Lacy is the school’s best hurdler since Eddie Cooper in 1983. After a successful career at El Camino, Cooper competed at San Diego State University and later became a world-class 400-meter intermediate hurdler.

“Since Eddie we’ve been bone-dry in hurdles,” Moreno said. “Aaron is a very hard worker and he has a great outlook on what it takes to be a champion. Today it’s hard to find a kid that’s truly dedicated and who will always listen to the coach. Aaron is like a throwback of 20 years.”

Lacy says he’s naturally a hard worker, but a knee injury at the end of his senior year in high school has made him more intense. He runs as though every moment on the track is his last.

“The injury helped me,” he said. “It hurt me, but at the same time it helped me. I work much harder now than I did before I got hurt.”

He sustained the injury to his right knee trying to break up a fight that involved one of his Gardena track teammates.

“I was trying to stop it, but I got hit from behind and ended up involved in the fight,” he said. “I twisted my knee pretty bad.”

The timing could not have been worse. It was the day before the City Championship preliminaries at Birmingham High, where pain forced Lacy to withdraw after a heat. He failed to qualify for the City Championships.

As a junior Lacy was the Marine League champion in the 110 and 330 hurdles and he placed fourth in both events at the City meet. As a senior Lacy was favored to win the City 110 and 330 hurdle titles.

He had an impressive regular

season, breaking the high school record in the 110 hurdles (14.7) at the Bronco Invitational and running a personal best 14.4 in that event at the Cal State Northridge Invitational a week later.

Lacy went on to set a Marine League meet record in the 110 hurdles (14.5) on the dirt track at Banning High. He placed second in the 330 hurdles and the long jump at the league meet.

“It was tough because it was supposed to be his year,” Gardena assistant coach Kevin Hughley said. “We really thought we had a state championship under us. I thought Aaron was better than the guy who won.”

Lacy says sitting in the stands at the City meet as a senior was very difficult to endure.

“That was so hard for me,” he said. “I remember I cried in the stands when they played the national anthem. I cried because I should have been out there warming up to win the state meet. It really shattered me.”

Lacy competed in junior national meets in Oregon and Texas that summer, but his injury resurfaced during a workout at El Camino in the fall of 1989. In November he had surgery to remove cartilage and was inactive until March, 1990.

The 19 year old sees this season as an opportunity to win the championship he could have won in high school. He also wants to prove to four-year colleges that he still has what it takes to be a winner. Lacy says Northern Arizona, UCLA, USC and Brown University recruited him as a senior at Gardena, but backed off after he got hurt.

“I’m on top now and I anticipate I’ll stay there,” Lacy said. “I want to be the state champ and I’m not going to let down on anything. I never give a 75% or a 95% or even a 99.9% effort. I always give 100% because that’s what it takes to be a winner.”

Lacy’s best times this season were at the Cal State Long Beach Relays on Feb. 23. He recorded a 53.13 in the 400 hurdles and a 14.4 in the 110 hurdles. Moreno says he needs a 14.0 in the 110 and a 53.0 in the 400 to win state titles at Sacramento City College in May.

While the coach is ecstatic to finally have a strong hurdler, he’s also excited about the rest of the team.

“This is the best group of athletes we’ve had in six years,” said Moreno, a highly regarded long jumper at East L.A. College in the early ‘70s. “We’re small in numbers, but we’re very talented. We’re good in sprints, hurdles and distances. The only place we’re weak is in the field events.”

The Warriors’ 400-meter relay team has the state’s second-fastest (41:01) time this season and its 1,600-meter relay squad is Southern California’s fastest (3:14.17).

In addition, El Camino has an array of talented freshmen sprinters and a strong distance field that includes sophomores Mike Ward and David Haskell. Ward won the South Coast Conference 1,500-meter title two years ago, but red-shirted last season because of a stress fracture. Haskell, a standout on the cross-country team, placed third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at last year’s state meet.

Lacy says being part of a strong team helps motivate him. He’s confident the Warriors will qualify for the state meet as a team.

“This is one of the best groups, out of all the years I’ve been running,” Lacy said. “This is the best track team I’ve ever trained with. We’re a dominating team on the track overall.”

Now that he’s healthy, Lacy says he can shoot for longtime goals. He wants to be the first athlete to win two Olympic gold medals in the 110 and 400 hurdles or to be ranked No. 1 in the world in both events.

“Sounds pretty far-fetched, huh? But it can be done,” he said. “It’s a matter of how much pain your’re willing to endure and how hard you’re willing to work for it.”

The soft-spoken athlete is also taking a difficult academic route. He plans to major in veterinarian medicine and hopes to compete at UCLA. Clearly, what Lacy wants to accomplish won’t come easy.