Harvey Puts Antelope Valley on Fast Track : Track and field: Sprint coach helps Marauders develop chances for some quick points in Southern California finals.

Mark Covert, the men’s and women’s track and field coach at Antelope Valley College, had one thing in mind when he recommended to administrators that James Harvey, former Valley College coach, be hired as an assistant last summer.

He wanted to develop a strong sprint tradition at the Lancaster school and Harvey had shown a knack for taking solid high school sprinters and turning them into standout junior college performers during his tenure at Valley as a head and assistant coach.

Harvey has laid a solid foundation this season as the Marauders’ George Daniels will run in the 400 meters and team with fellow freshmen Mike Blankenship, Craig Kelley and Ken Hopson in the 400 relay in today’s Southern California championships at Bakersfield College.

“Harvey has done a Harvey job,” Covert said. “He did it at Valley and he’s doing it here. He’s got these kids training hard and believing in what they can do.”

The 400 relay team, which lowered the school record to 41.00 seconds in winning the Foothill Conference title, timed 41.32 in last week’s preliminaries and can qualify for next week’s State championships with a top-four finish.

The relay team has an interesting composition as Daniels hails from Guyana by way of Brooklyn, N.Y., Blankenship is from Camp Kilpatrick and Hopson and Kelley were 10.8 and 10.9 100 sprinters for Monroe High last year.

Kelley has run 10.4 (hand-timed) and 10.75 (fully automatic) this year with Blankenship at 10.5 and 10.85 and Hopson at 10.5 and 10.87. Daniels has clocked 21.3 in the 200 and 48.16 in the 400.

The Marauders had the fifth-fastest qualifying time in the preliminaries, but Covert would not be surprised with a second school record today.

Isaac Turner of Glendale will be shooting for his third school record of the season in the men’s 800.

Turner, who has signed a letter of intent with USC, finished second in last year’s Southern California championships and ranks second in the state this season with a time of 1 minute 49.93 seconds.

Amy Blackburn of Ventura will defend her title in the women’s discus, Pirate teammate Kris McLucas will try to qualify for the State meet in both the 110 high hurdles and the 400 intermediates, and Ramon Serratos of Canyons and Jacques Sallberg of Glendale will renew their rivalry in the 3,000 steeplechase.

Blackburn (138 feet 7 inches) was a distant second to Mt. San Antonio College’s Michelle Bryant (152-7) in qualifying, but she was an underdog in last year’s meet before winning with a personal best of 148-5.

McLucas, a freshman from Santa Clara High, had not cracked the 56-second barrier in the intermediates until the Western State Conference meet two weeks ago, but clocked 54.44 to win the WSC title and timed 53.85 in last week’s preliminaries.

Serratos outkicked Sallberg to win the WSC title in the steeplechase, 9:27.8 to 9:27.9, and the Cougar freshman led last week’s qualifying with a personal best of 9:18.5.

Long Beach City College is favored in the men’s and women’s team competition, with Moorpark looking for its fourth consecutive top-five finish in the men’s meet.

The meet will have a unique time schedule, with the field events starting at noon and the first running event set for 6 p.m.