Fremont’s Scott Is Keeping It Simple : Track: Junior long jumper enjoys success by breaking down the event to its basic elements, stepping up workouts, and then just giving it his all.

Fremont High junior Clarence Scott took a simple approach to the long jump last year.

“I just ran as fast as I could down the runway and jumped as far as I could,” Scott said.

Scott had good success, leaping 23 feet 8 1/2 inches, to place second in the event in the intermediate boys’ division (age 15-16) at the USA Track & Field National Junior Olympics last July.

After weightlifting and polishing his technique, the 5-foot-10, 145-pound Scott has improved since working with Coach Steve Lang.

“The long jump is a speed and position event,” Lang said. “It’s just a matter of refining those things.”

Scott jumped a state-leading 24-6 3/4 to win at the Arcadia/Foot Locker Invitational April 18.

The jump ranks as the No. 2 high school mark in the country this season behind Toya Jones of Refugio, Tex., who has leaped 24-7 1/2.

All six of Scott’s jumps at Arcadia surpassed his previous best and four were more than 24 feet. No one in the City Section has jumped farther than 22-5 this season.

“I had a lot of energy, but I was a little bit scared because of the competition,” Scott said. “After the first jump, I knew I was going to go far that night. It’s one thing to have the best mark in the City, but to have the top jump in the state is unbelievable.”

Scott following his performance at Arcadia with a 23-10 1/4 effort at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays on April 21.

Lang believes there is still room for improvement.

“We want to get to 25 feet,” Lang said. “With the jumps he took at Arcadia, I know he can go beyond that.”

Scott has also led the Fremont 400- and 1,600-meter relay teams to the third- and fourth-fastest marks in the City this season.

With Scott as the anchor leg, the Fremont 400-meter relay team of Korey Taylor, Nelson Lloyd and Jermaine Lovelace has clocked 42.74. Lovelace, Scott, Thurston Washington and Cameron Carson have run 3:23.9 in the 1,600 relay.

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Valerie Brisco, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the women’s 200 and 400 meters from Locke High, is serving as an assistant track coach at Jordan.