Haynes Is Not Ready to Jump to Conclusions : Preps: Bishop Montgomery long jump specialist may be among favorites to win a State title, but she must conquer Masters Meet first.

As a junior, Nicole Haynes of Bishop Montgomery High entered the State track and field finals with hopes of winning the long jump.

Only Haynes fell short of her goal and had to settle for third place.

She had another opportunity to win a state title as a forward on the Bishop Montgomery girls’ basketball team in March. But the Knights lost a double-overtime game to Hayward Moreau in the Division II final at Arco Arena in Sacramento.

Haynes, 17, still has one more chance to win a state title and this time she feels it is within her grasp.

The first step will be qualifying for the State meet at the Southern Section Masters Meet, which begins at 5:30 p.m. today at Cerritos College in Norwalk. The top five finishers in each event qualify for State.

“I think I’m ready,” Haynes said. “I’m practicing on my form and those little minute things you don’t always think about. So far, I don’t have any ailments right now and I feel I’m improving every day. Hopefully, I can go out and win State with a good jump.”

There is no doubt that Haynes has the ability. She leaped 19-1 1/2 as a junior and was second in qualifying for the Masters Meet with a leap of 18-3 1/2 to win the 2-A Division championship last week.

The major concern for Haynes has been her health. She has been beset with injuries since late in her junior year but still leaped 18-11 3/4 at State.

“Last year at the (Southern Section) finals, I thought I just sprained my ankle and it was bothering me all the way through the State meet,” she said. “After the State meet I had it checked out and the doctor said I chipped a bone in my ankle. I didn’t have a cast put on because I had been competing on it all year. So I just let it heal with rest.”

The 5-foot-11 Haynes was looking forward to competing on the basketball team as a senior, but she didn’t play until the last game of the Mission League season because of a back injury that she suffered in an auto accident.

When she did return, Haynes was slowed by a groin injury, but managed to average 15 points in postseason play to help the Knights in their bid for a State title.

She was also suffering from knee problems during the playoffs, although it didn’t keep her out of the lineup.

“I play pretty hard and toward the end of the basketball season, my knees started hurting me and I didn’t start training for track for about a month into the season,” Haynes said.

Haynes initially had hoped that playing on the basketball team would help prepare her for track.

“I was counting on basketball to condition me for track, but I ended up missing a lot of the season because of it,” she said. “It was a lot of fun, but I had no idea it was going to last that long.”

Because the Knights’ season didn’t end until late March--a few weeks after track season had already begun--Haynes got a late start. She was also slowed because her knees were recuperating from basketball.

Haynes didn’t compete in a track meet until the Mission League preliminaries in April.

Her outside activities also keep her busy.

An outstanding student with a 3.55 grade-point average, Haynes was elected Bishop Montgomery’s student body president.

She is also vice chairman of the Torrance Youth Council, an organization that helps raise funds for needy people and causes.

In addition, Haynes was voted the school’s homecoming queen. She went on to win a statewide competition that included 84 homecoming queens from throughout the state and will participate in the national finals starting July 16 at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

Barry Sacks, an assistant coach with the track team, said her outside activities have undoubtedly slowed her progress in track.

“I think the greatest thing she’s had to deal with has been being school president and all of the activities that she has been involved with because of that,” he said. “But now that’s slowing down and she’s more focused for track than she has been all season.”

Sacks said he has seen distinct signs of progress by Haynes in practice and thinks she is starting to approach her potential.

“It will come from within her and you’ll see it this weekend,” he said. “It’s shown in her training. She was a little slowed by the injury but I think she’s almost ready now.”

Bishop Montgomery Coach Ben Egan credits much of Haynes’ success to her athleticism and instincts.

“She’s got an athletic body and the skills to put on top of it,” he said. “Plus, she’s just a very competitive person and she does what she has to do to win.”

Egan said Haynes could probably excel at the collegiate level in several sports.

“She played soccer for two years here and she was every bit as much of an athlete as she is on the track,” he said.

Haynes has been an all-league selection as a defender on the soccer team as a freshman and sophomore. She competed in only track as a junior but, with a little urging from Coach Cedric Hurt, decided to play basketball as a senior.

It didn’t take Haynes long to become a force on the court. Despite missing most of the season, she earned All-Southern Section Division II second-team honors.

“She only played one year of basketball but, believe it or not, she had a lot of people recruiting her,” Egan said.

NCAA Division I schools such as Washington, Grambling and UC Santa Barbara expressed interest, and Grambling offered her a scholarship.

“A bunch of schools called my coach but he told them I was just a track person,” Haynes said.

Haynes, who will attend USC on a track scholarship in the fall, said there is still a possibility that she will give basketball a try in college.

“I wouldn’t mind playing and I’ve talked to the coaches there about it,” she said. “But I wouldn’t want the same thing that happened to me this year to happen in college.”

But Haynes acknowledges that her athletic future is probably in track.

Although her best event has been the long jump, she has also had success in the 300hurdles. She was third in the 2-A final last week by finishing in 46.39 seconds. Egan thinks she has potential in the event.

“She’s got a lot of ability but she’s got no form because I think the hurdles in high school are too low for her,” he said. “But I think she will improve in college when she goes to the higher hurdles.”

Haynes has also competed in the 200 and 800, anchors Bishop Montgomery’s 400 relay team and has run in the 1,600 relay.

Because of her athleticism, Haynes expects to compete in the heptathlon at USC in addition to the long jump and hurdles.

“I haven’t done the heptathlon since I was a sophomore, so I don’t know how I’ll do,” she said. “But I like a lot of diversity when I’m competing and the heptathlon gives me that.”

Egan would not be surprised to see her make a strong bid for the Olympic team in 1996.

“I think she’s talented enough to have a shot and she’ll just be finishing her college career at that time,” he said.

But first, Haynes has business that she wants to attend to in the State long jump final.