Morse’s Team (and Coach) Makes Points

“Let me ask you this,” said Mike Klepper, longtime track coach at Morse, “just what do we have to do to get some attention around here?”

Uh-oh, this guy’s upset:

“Our boys’ team breaks a (section) record by winning the team title with 70 points (at Saturday’s San Diego Section finals), which is five more points than the Lincoln team scored when I was a part of it 25 years ago, and we don’t get mentioned in any of the newspapers until the last sentence.”

Klepper was only getting revved up:

“There are 16 events in track and field. Morse was only in seven and got points in only five of those we still scored 70 points. Then on Tuesday I have to face 40 kids all asking me why no one wrote about them. ‘Well, I don’t know,’ I had to tell them. ‘Maybe if you win the team title at the state meet, but then again, no one will mention that because it’s still a team title.’ I mean, we saw a 25-year scoring mark go down the tubes.”

What Klepper didn’t want to acknowledge was that teams do not advance to the section finals; individuals do.

And as far as that goes, Morse had more individuals finish in the top six than any other school.

And for the record, Mt. Carmel won the girls’ team championship Saturday with 79 points.

What put the Tigers on top of the team standings, which go largely ignored--”Most of the time, no one even sticks around after the meet to see who won the team title,” Klepper acknowledged--were the 49 points that came from only two events, the long jump and triple jump.

In the long jump, Morse had the first-place finisher (Terrence Sweet (23-3 1/4), the second-place finisher (Cary Taylor, 23-3 1/4), the fourth-place finisher (Teddy Lawrence, 23-0, and the sixth-place finisher (Gary Taylor, 21-10 1/2).

In the triple jump, Morse athletes finished first (Cary Taylor, 48-6), second (Sweet, 47-11 1/4), third (Gary Taylor, 47-5 1/4), and fifth (Anthony Walker, 45-3 1/2).

Morse also took first in the 400 relay (Brian Griffis, Don Nash, Gary Taylor and Lawrence).

Know what? With so many athletes advancing to the state meet (the top three in each event advance), Morse also could win the state team title.