San Diego Jumpers Win; Cason Just Misses Mark

San Diego High School athletes took first in both the boys’ and girls’ triple jumps at Saturday’s Sunkist Invitational indoor track meet at the Sports Arena.

Morse’s Cary Taylor won the boys’ triple jump with a mark of 49-feet-8 1/2, and Mt. Miguel’s Amy Littlepage won the girls’ event at 37-11.

Gary Taylor, Cary’s brother, placed third at 46-8 1/4. In between was Offord Rollins of the Central Section’s Wasco High with a leap of 48-6 1/4.

Littlepage also placed fifth in the long jump at 17-8. Sheena Ferguson of San Francisco Washington won the event at 18-8 1/4.

Cary Taylor’s effort represents a major improvement from last year when he made it to the State finals but did not get off a fair jump. Saturday’s mark is an improvement of more than a foot from his best jump of a year ago (48-8 1/4).

What’s more, in placing ahead of Rollins he beat the returning state champion in the event.

Littlepage’s best triple jump of a year ago was 38-0, a mark she accomplished in the Section finals.

In the boys’ 50 meters, Southwest High’s Riley Washington had the day’s fastest preliminary time, 5.92 seconds, but in the finals, he was edged by one-hundreth of a second by a guy he proved faster than in his preliminary heat.

Jerron Turner of San Jose Mt. Pleasant won the final in 5.92 to Washington’s 5.93.

Craig Harzmann of Glendale also was in both races and tied Washington at 5.92 in the first, only to fall back and place third (5.94) in the final.

Washington placed fourth in the State 100 meters last year at 10.50, his best time ever in that event.

And in the boy’s long jump, Lincoln’s Scott Hammond, despite spending the winter training with the basketball varsity, turned in a second-place leap of 22-5 3/4. Eugene Dreher of Antelope Valley won at 23-0 1/4.

Hammond also ran a 6.01 in his preliminary heat of the 50 meters, but did not make the finals.

Other noteworthy efforts from County athletes:

-- Jason Carroll of Orange Glen finished fifth in the pole vault at 14-0. That was the second-best jump for a California athlete at the meet, though Wayne Guidry from Orange Field, Texas set a new meet record at 16-8 (bettering the old mark of 16-7 set by another Texan, Jason Lavender, in 1990.

-- Nazario Romero of San Pasqual came in third in the two mile at 9:35.2. Margarito Casillas of Glendale Hoover won with a time of 9:26.6. Romero placed second in last year’s Section finals with a time of (9:26.4), but did not do well in the State meet.

-- Chad Wengner of Mira Mesa placed fourth in the boys’ rated mile at 4:26.4 seconds. First place went to Goss Lindsey of Peninsula, who finished at 4:18.9.

-- Susan Scott of Mt. Carmel placed fourth in the girls’ 880 yards, finishing in 2:25.7. Kamara Mayberry of St. Bernard High was first in 2:19.9.

Andre Cason, suffering from jet lag and what he said was a technically poor race, won the men’s 50 meters in 5.62 seconds, only one-hundredth of a second short of tying the world record held by Germany’s Manfred Kokot (1973) and former USC sprinter James Sanford (1981).

Cason set a world indoor record in the 60 meters Friday night in Madrid. Then he got on a jet to Los Angeles with a stop in Frankfurt, Germany.

It was a 13-hour flight and he said he slept only five hours on the plane. He arrived here at 1:30 p.m., went to his hotel room for a few hours and was soon on the starting line for the 50 meters at the Sunkist Invitational track meet Saturday night at the Sports Arena.

The 5-foot-7, 150-pound Cason came on after a shaky start to win in a surging finish, beating Nigeria’s Davidson Ezinwa, who finished second in 5.64.

“I’m a bit disappointed. I ran through the (finish) line instead of leaning, which is a mistake,” Cason said. “I went to the line, and I said, ‘Please nobody false start. I don’t want to do this again.’ And somebody did.

“The race was technically poor. My start was terrible. I slipped on my second step and my head popped up and I was swaying from side to side.

“I regained control of myself and started catching up with the pack. If I had leaned, I’m sure I would have run faster.”