Fast-Improving Carlson Surprises Himself by Achieving Personal Best

Kevin Carlson has big plans for the second-to-last weekend in June, none of which currently involve high jumping.

Carlson, a senior at Southern California College, and fiancee Suzan Verdery plan to be married June 22 in front of about 300 friends and family at Sunkist Baptist Church in Anaheim.

But June 22 also falls in between the two days of high jump competition at the U.S. Olympic trials in Atlanta, and last Saturday Carlson surprised himself by showing the potential to qualify for the trials.

Carlson cleared a personal-best 7 feet 3 and narrowly missed 7-4 1/4, the provisional qualifying mark for the trials, winning the event at the UC Riverside Invitational Saturday. The automatic qualifying height is 7-6 and a former coach believes Carlson is capable of at least 7-6.

Carlson, however, isn’t ready to change his wedding plans. “I look at it like I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it,” he said. “I think it would be a hard decision because I’m very excited to get married.

“Everyone is making a big hoopla, a bigger deal than it is to me now. I guess I would think more seriously about it if it were to happen, but 7-4 1/4 or 7-4 1/2 is a long way from 7-3. Who knows what’s going to happen in the future?”

Until Saturday’s performance, Carlson was cruising through his final season as a collegiate athlete, preparing for an attempt at winning the NAIA national title. He and his younger brother, Brian, finished third and fourth in the NAIA last year.

Kevin was jumping well but was stuck at a plateau. He hadn’t improved his personal best since he jumped 7-1 as a senior at Katella High School in 1992.

Saturday, “when I went to 7 feet and made it on my first jump,” Carlson said, “I felt something I haven’t felt in a long time.”

Carlson maintained the feeling, clearing 7-2 and 7-3 on his second attempt at each height. Then with the bar at 7-4 1/4, Carlson brushed it with his leg or heel on the way down on his second attempt.

“They were monster jumps,” said Jim Kiefer, Carlson’s coach for two years at Fullerton College who was in the stands Saturday. “But I think we have just seen the tip of the iceberg.”

Kiefer said Carlson cleared the bar by at least four inches on the near miss at 7-4 1/4. “If he’s retained that feeling at all,” Kiefer said, “then he’s got a lot to show people in the next couple of weeks. I think he’s got [7-6 in him]. I’m not a crazy optimist but with what I saw there, if he gets 10 more jumps at bars that high, he’s going to make some of them.”

Carlson has been taken aback by the reaction to his jump, which is an SCC school record. He is still concentrating mostly on planning his wedding and finishing his degree in exercise and sports science. Soon he will start to look for a summer job before starting work on a teaching credential in the fall.

High jumping at SCC has been something of a hobby that Carlson pursued after basketball season. He was a two-time all-conference selection for the Vanguards. SCC has a high jump pit but it is second-hand and is kept in storage and the Carlsons jump in practice at Katella High two days a week.

“I guess people are going to expect me to be a real high jumper now,” Carlson said, “not just an athlete who can jump a little bit.”

*

Cale Shepherd, a junior on the Chapman baseball team, hasn’t given up a run in 11 relief appearances for the Panthers this season. Shepherd leads the NCAA Division III in saves with eight. He also has eight home runs and 38 runs batted in for Chapman (16-12).

Tuesday, Chapman beat Occidental, 18-4, with a 19-hit attack. The Panthers had 18 singles and a ground-rule double by Todd Steinhardt.

*

Derrick Bly, Concordia’s third baseman, had a 27-game hitting streak ended last week in a 10-1 loss to The Master’s.

However, he has hits in each of the three games since. In one he had a double, triple and home run. In another, he had a single, double and triple. He is batting .491 with eight home runs and 39 RBIs.

He broke Concordia single-season records for triples (nine) and home runs last week.

Notes

The Southern California College softball team will host Azusa Pacific in a battle for first place in the Golden State Athletic Conference at noon Saturday. SCC, ranked 19th in the nation, is 17-15-2, 6-2; No. 10 Azusa is 30-8, 7-1. . . . Chapman women’s tennis player Deborah Denio, a junior transfer from Cal State Fullerton, has won six singles matches in a row for the Panthers, who have won three in a row to improve to 7-6. Tuesday, Denio beat Jill Edsberg, 6-4, 6-1, in a 7-2 victory over Biola and is 10-3 in singles this season. . . . Concordia sports information director Amanda Saltin has accepted a volunteer position in the main press center at the Olympics in Atlanta. Saltin went to high school in Atlanta before attending Point Loma Nazarene.