Santin, Fletcher Get Off to Speedy Starts

Exciting performances are in the eye of the beholder.

Take juniors Frances Santin of Taft High and Miguel Fletcher of Alemany, for example.

Both highly regarded track and field athletes excelled in the Alemany-Northridge Relays at Cal State Northridge on Saturday, yet Santin’s runaway victories in the girls’ 300-meter low hurdles impressed more of the fans than did Fletcher’s victories in the boys’ 100 and 200.

Santin’s 44.7-second clocking in the 300 lows gave her a 5 1/2-second margin of victory, while Fletcher had to come from behind to win the 100 in 10.8 and clocked a sluggish--by his standards--21.9 in the 200.

Fletcher is the No. 2 returning 200 sprinter in the nation and Santin is the No. 12 returnee in the 300 hurdles. Simply put, many fans expect more from Fletcher than from Santin because he accomplished more last year.

Fletcher shook his head in apparent frustration after the 100 and 200, but said later he was satisfied.

“This is good for my first meet,” Fletcher said. “I’m not worrying about times right now. I’m just worrying about winning and working on my technique. . . . I don’t want to peak too early like I did last year.”

Fletcher was regarded as a contender entering last year’s state championships, but he finished eighth in the 100 in 10.86 and seventh in the 200 in 21.75 after running personal bests of 10.46 and 21.06 earlier in the season.

In contrast to Fletcher, Santin posted the two best times of her career at the state championships. She ran 43.24 to win her qualifying heat and 43.99 to place sixth in the final. She envisions faster times.

“I want to run 41.93,” she said. “That number just popped into my head so I’m going to focus on that and use it as my goal.”

The first half of Saturday’s race was vintage Santin as she cleared the first four hurdles cleanly. Although she had to overstride to make it over the fifth and sixth barriers of the eight-hurdle race, she was happy with her performance.

“I just wanted to break 45,” she said. “I wanted to post a time at the start of this season that was close to my best near the end of last season.”

Justin Fargas of Notre Dame, Lawrence Jones of Taft and Sarah Ellis of La Canada had some of the other top performances in the meet, which was not held in 1995 because the dilapidated Northridge track wasn’t safe for competition and was canceled last year because the track resurfacing wasn’t complete.

Fargas, a junior who rushed for 2,945 yards and 34 touchdowns during football season, won the triple jump with a leap of 45 feet, placed third in the 100 at 11.0 and ran the first leg on the Knights’ 1,600-meter relay team that finished fourth in 3 minutes 24.1 seconds.

He also ran the opening leg on the 400 relay team that won in 42.5 before being disqualified for passing the baton outside of its exchange zone.

Jones, another junior, won the 400 in 49.1 after dueling with Notre Dame senior Chris Forde (49.2) and twin brother Larry Jones (49.3) in the homestretch.

He also ran legs on Taft foursomes that placed first in the 400 relay (43.1) and second in the 1,600 relay (3:18.8).

Ellis, the 1996 state Division IV cross-country champion, ran 5:03 on her leg of the 4 x 1,600-meter relay to help La Canada clock a victorious 21:32.6.