Fear Results in Fast Times at State Meet

Paranoia proved to be a virtue for the Morse girls’ 400-meter relay team and for Helix distance runner Daniel Das Neves at Friday’s preliminaries of the CIF/Reebok State Track and Field Championships at Cerritos College.

Unfounded fear also came into play for Southwest sprinter Riley Washington, who surprisingly was the fastest qualifier in the 200 meters at 21.08. That gives Washington the section’s second-fastest mark of all time, placing him ahead of El Camino’s Darron Norris, who ran a 21.09 in 1984. It put him within eight-hundredths of a second of section record-holder Ray Ethridge of Crawford who in 1987 clocked a 21.00.

Washington also qualified in the 100 meters with the day’s second fastest time, 10.55.

The finals will be run today--field events begin at 3 p.m., track events an hour earlier.

Because Latoya Crews, who runs the third leg for Morse, and anchor runner Monica Henderson worried about repeating their performance in the section finals, where they dropped the baton, the two concentrated on the pass. It went smoothly and Henderson made up ground on three other schools to place Morse first in the fourth heat.

Morse’s time (47.83 seconds) was the second fastest overall. Morningside of the Southern Section turned in a time of 46.80 in the first heat with little competition--it was the only qualifier from that heat.

Later, Das Neves was concerned that a pack of runners just over his shoulder in the first heat of the 1,600-meters was conspiring to pass and leave him behind--so he changed gears and fled, finishing first with the best time in either heat, 4:15.95.

Several other section athletes qualified for today’s finals. On the track, local qualifiers included:

Erin Blunt of San Pasqual in the 100-meter low hurdles (14.06, fifth-fastest qualifying time) and the 300 lows (43.87, third), Allison Dring of Mt. Carmel in the 400 meters (56.55, seventh), Angela Sullivan of Serra in the 100 (12.06) and the 200 (24.78), Henderson in the 100 (12.02, seventh), Scott Hammond of Lincoln in the 100 (10.65) and the 200 (21.61), Paul Turner of University City in the 100 (10.64), Melanie Hand of Fallbrook in the 800 (2:14.20, fifth), and both the San Pasqual girls’ 1,600-meter relay team (3:53.07, fourth) and the Mt. Carmel girls (3:53.44).

In field events, the following qualified:

Kristina Mataafa of Orange Glen in both the discus (145-feet-8, second best qualifying mark) and the shot put (41-8 1/2, seventh), Scia Maumausolo of Mt. Carmel in the discus (140-5, third), Christine Burton of Helix in the long jump (19-0 1/4, sixth), Amy Littlepage of Mt. Miguel (38-10 1/2, fourth), and Cary Taylor of Morse in the triple jump (48-7 3/4, fourth).

The Morse girls’ 400 relay team originally was disqualified for dropping the baton at last week’s section meet. They only gained a spot at Cerritos College because Coach Gary MacDonald appealed the disqualification to three umpires. The third time he brought with him a video of the race that showed Henderson retrieving the baton within the passing zone.

The quartet--which also includes Carlene Jones and Kunesha Miller--did not know it would be making the trip until Tuesday, which hampered practice Monday.

“We just weren’t that into it,” Henderson said. “We were thinking, ‘What if we’re doing this for no reason?’ ”

After winning the appeal, they found plenty of reasons to make up for lost time.

“Coach worked so hard getting us here that we didn’t want to let him down,” Crews said.

Still the errant baton remained in their mind.

“That was my biggest worry (during Friday’s preliminary),” Crews continued. “I was thinking, ‘Am I going to get it to her this time?’ She got off really fast, then I thought if I do manage to get it to her, will we have a good enough grip on it?”

Das Neves was not shooting for the quickest qualifying time--he only wanted to burn enough energy to qualify while keeping his tank full for today’s finals in which he will run both the 1,600 and 3,200 meters.

“That’s what I wanted to do,” Das Neves said. “But with one lap to go, I looked back and saw a lot of guys right behind me, and I recognized most of them. They were all fast runners, and I thought they were there because they wanted to pass me in the end, so I had to kick just to qualify.”

Das Neves is confident about his chances in the 1,600, but not quite sure about the longer race. He said he is recovered from a toe and heal injury to his left foot, but the effect of the injury still lingers.

“My injuries are a lot better,” he said. “But I’m still out of shape. So I have to be cautious because even though I’m not feeling any more pain, my body is not feeling great, either.”

Despite placing second in his heat with the day’s second-fastest time, Southwest’s Washington was downright disappointed with his performance in the 100. After getting out of the blocks slow, he pulled ahead only to stumble and lose the lead to Gentry Bradley of Downey Pius X, who won at 10:51.

“I kind of lost control,” Washington said. “But I just feel weak. I’ve been sick all week.”

Then came his surprise victory in the 200 as he held off a surge from Bradley, who got second place at 21.22.

“I can’t tell you how I did it,” Washington said. “The way I felt earlier, I didn’t think I had it in me. . . . Going into the first turn, I saw a couple runners pulling away from me, and I just thought I can compete with these guys. I figured I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

By the time the three leaders--Bradley, Derek Shephard of San Francisco Lincoln and Washington--came out of the turn, Washington was setting the pace.

“I know I could have gone faster at the end,” Washington said. “And this is the race I despise most.”

Washington said he is comfortable with his chances of winning both races today.

“If I can just get my start down,” he said. “Everything else will fall into place.”