HIGH SCHOOL TRACK : Mt. Carmel’s Dring Goes Out as a Winner in Palomar Finals

Mt. Carmel senior Allison Dring had to walk off the track at Poway High on Thursday knowing she would never return.

“I have so many memories from this place,” she said after winning the 400 meters there for the last time. She clocked a 55.3 to win the event during the Palomar League finals. Dring also won the 200 (24.9) and anchored both Mt. Carmel relay teams to victories.

“I’ve had some of my best races here,” Dring said. “And I think those memories made the sparks come back today.”

Dring has been beset by a recurring ankle sprain this season and has been unable to match the 54.39 she ran last season in the 400, her best event. Thursday’s time was by far her best performance of the year.

“It feels wonderful,” she said. “I’ve never had to deal with a major injury like this and I wasn’t sure how to handle it emotionally, so it set me back.

“But I’ve been having some big discussions with my teammates, with my parents and my coaches and I’m starting to see what’s really important, and that’s running for myself,” said Dring, who will attend Arizona next year.

While Dring took her final bow at Poway, another athlete, Rancho Buena Vista’s Leon Hawes, was introducing himself to the stadium where the majority of the section’s postseason meets are run.

Hawes, a freshman, edged Poway senior Damian Richey in the 100 meters. Both finished with identical hand times of 10.8.

“Wow, a freshman beats a senior,” Hawes mused afterward. “That felt good.”

Hawes and Richey also battled in the 200, and again both sprinters were given an identical mark (21.9), but this time it was Richey who leaned to the tape first.

Hawes led for much of the way in the 200 before letting Richey take over at the end.

“I have a tendency to slow down when I’m in he lead,” Hawes said. “When no one’s in front of me, I just don’t have it in me. But if someone else is leading me, I feel that push, I have the incentive.”

In the 100, Richey gave Hawes that incentive and got out of the blocks first.

“I got out (of the blocks) real good,” Hawes said. “But he just got out a little before me. I had no doubt that I would catch him because I was right there with him and I still had a lot left in me.”

Track is the third sport Hawes has participated in this year. He gained 994 yards for RBV’s freshmen football team, then averaged 12.6 points for the freshman basketball team. Track was more or less an afterthought.

“This is like a hobby,” he said, reciting the line of other multisport athletes. “I like to run, but basketball, I want to do that for a living.”

Richey also placed first in the long jump at 22-1 3/4.

Another RBV athlete didn’t have Hawes’ good fortune. Josh Fuller, who last year placed second in the pole vault at the Palomar League finals, repeated that performance Thursday, clearing 14-feet-0.

Chris Buddin of Orange Glen also cleared 14-0 but placed first because of fewer misses.

“I don’t even want to pick it up,” Fuller snapped at a teammate who told him their medals were ready. “I got second place last year.”

Fuller, whose best this year was 14-6, would have had a better chance of going higher than 14-0 had his pole not been stolen late Monday.

He had to borrow a pole from MiraCosta College that was a different brand and nine inches longer, two major adjustments in what is considered track and field’s most technical event.

“I probably could have gone higher (with my own pole),” Fuller said. “Every pole reacts differently.”

The theft came at the worst possible time as section preliminaries loom. Fuller was looking for a first-place finish Thursday, another one in the section finals, then a top-three placing at the state meet.

“Now it feels like I’m starting my season all over again,” he said. “It really felt weird today, like I wasn’t even jumping.”

Pole vaulters tend to form informal fraternities each year, and their kinship showed Thursday as Budding, the eventual winner, brought along an extra pole for Fuller. Fuller stuck with the one he borrowed from MiraCosta, however, since he spent a couple days practicing on it.

Like Dring, Fallbrook’s Milena Glusac used the meet to put an injury in the past. Glusac won the 1,600 in 4:53.7, five seconds better than her previous best of 4:58.89 this year. That mark also was a section best. Glusac then came back with another impressive victory in the 3,200, finishing in 10:53.1, almost 22 seconds better than her previous section best.

“I’m really happy,” Glusac said after the 1,600 victory. “I just wanted to run a good race, and this is totally the fastest I’ve run this year.”

Glusac has had several disappointments this year, beginning with the National Cross-Country championships, a race she entered as the hometown favorite, but finished second to last after a low sugar level stiffened her legs and slowed her own.

Before the track season began, Glusac contracted a flu bug while on an exchange program in Japan. Her training was delayed upon her return.

Last month at the Mt. SAC meet, Glusac woke up with laryngitis, which again set back her training schedule.

She now appears fit as the state meet is only three weeks away.

“And I’m not going to get sick again,” Glusac insisted. “I’m not.”