TRACK AND FIELD : Long Jumper Scott Sets Sights on National Title

Clarence Scott has already won City Section and State titles in the long jump this year. The Fremont High junior will try to add a national title in the USA Track and Field Junior championships Friday and Saturday (June 23-24) at Mt. San Antonio College.

Scott, the nation’s high school leader in the long jump at 25 feet 4 1/2 inches, will also compete in the 200 meters, in which he has run 21.29.

He heads into the junior meet (age 19 and under) with a victory in the June 10 Golden West Invitational in Sacramento, which featured the country’s top athletes. Scott completed a wind-aided 24-4 to win by two inches.

Loyola’s Matt Pentecost, the state shotput champion, also competed in the Golden West meet, finishing third at 61-9 3/4.

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In the USA/Mobil Outdoor Track and Field nationals at Sacramento City College, Michael Granville of Bell Gardens High advanced to the semifinals in the 800 meters without stepping onto the track. Preliminary heats Thursday night were cancelled because of insufficient competitors.

Granville, the third-fastest high school runner of all time at 1:47.96, ran in the semifinals Friday night. If the 17-year-old junior finished among the top four in his heat he will run in the finals today.

Granville is the lone high school runner in the 800 and only athlete under the age of 20. He is competing in a field that includes American record-holder and Crenshaw High graduate Johnny Gray and George Kersh, who set the national high school record of 1:46.58 in 1987. Gray, who also attended L.A. Southwest College, has won five of the last 10 years.

The top three finishers in each event in the meet, which began Wednesday and concludes today, qualify for the U.S. team for the IAAF World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, in August.

Jeff Williams, a 1982 Washington High standout, won his heat of the 100 meters in 10.37 and ran fourth in his semifinal in 10.19 to claim the last qualifying spot for the final. Williams was also scheduled to run in the 200-meter heats Saturday, an event in which he ranked fifth in the world and second in the U.S. last year.

Other competitors included Barry Smith and Angel Carver of Cal State L.A. Smith placed sixth in his 100 heat in 10.69 Thursday and did not qualify for the semifinals. He also ran in the 200 Saturday.

Carver, the NCAA Division II triple jump champion, was scheduled to compete Thursday but heavy rains, biting 14 mph winds and temperatures in the low 50s--the second-coldest June 15 in the capital city since 1878--caused organizers to postpone the men’s and women’s triple jumps to Saturday.