HIGH SCHOOL TRACK : Scott and Dring Do a Little Better Than Simply Qualify

Track and field qualifying meets are not really meets. There are no ribbons or medals, only lane placements or admission tickets to an upcoming real meet.

The object is to not to push if you don’t have to. Keep the hamstrings loose, don’t blow them out.

But tell that to sprinters Darnay Scott and Allison Dring, two of the county’s top performers. Tell that to the estimated 1,800 spectators who turned out to watch the CIF-San Diego Section preliminaries at Poway High and got their money’s worth Saturday.

Scott, a senior from Kearny, and Dring, a junior from Mt. Carmel, and a handful of other athletes performed as if they were in the state finals.

Scott ran what might have been the second-fastest 100 meters in county history, though there remained some question over his time of 10.5 seconds. Dring ran the third-quickest 400 of all time, 54.39, only one-tenth of a second slower than her section-record 54.29.

Morse’s Cary Taylor and Terry Sweet, a couple of unknowns before the season, each took a big leap toward next week’s finals in the triple jump. Taylor, a junior, jumped 48 feet 8 1/4 inches. Sweet went 48-8 in what turned out to be a crowd-pleasing duel between teammates. Both of those distances are nearly two feet farther than the 46-11 1/4 that Castle Park’s Matt Johnson leaped last year to win the section championship.

Keith Williams of Escondido beat his 1990 county-best time in the 300 intermediate hurdles, a 37.29 that earned him sixth place in the state meet. Saturday he ran a 37.28 with two aching shin splints. Williams said he lost his balance going over the second hurdle then heard one of his coaches telling him to get in gear.

Who said this is just a rehearsal? The big names were running for keeps. Williams, Scott and Dring each qualified first in two events.

“I can’t get up,” said Dring, who was on her hands and knees after the 400. “I can’t pace it. I can’t tell myself to do that. I just run as hard as I can to the finish line and see what happens. Coming around the (last) corner, I felt stronger. Maybe it’s just CIF.”

Scott came within .23 seconds of a section record in the 200, which Kearny Coach Joe Cohen said he will try to break this week. Scott might have run his 100 too quick for any hand or eye at the finish line. Cohen said there was no photograph of the finish of Scott’s heat. The photo is used to help translate hand-held time to electronic time. His unofficial time was announced at 10.3 and later listed officially at 10.5, hand-held.

“I’m not quite sure what happened,” Cohen said. “I had him at 10.4-something.”

This was only the prelims, but Scott spent the week racing Kearny’s girls’ 400-relay team and chasing fellow sprinters Pierre Edwards and Damien Victor around the track. Cohen said Scott wants to break the record of 21.0 in the 200 in front of a San Diego crowd. Scott’s 21.23 Saturday was the sixth best time in San Diego history.

“I’m there,” he said. “Within a week I should have it. I’m going to run super hard.”

Williams also did some extra-curricular training for the prelims--road racing--and it cost him two achy legs and a few therapy sessions.

Said Williams, who should be among the favorites in both the high and intermediate hurdles at the state meet: “Hey, there’s not a lot of grass in Escondido.”