Moser Has Off Day, but Makes Discus Final

It was something few people have witnessed, but those who showed up for the discus event saw Huntington Beach’s Scott Moser finish second at the Southern Section Division I track preliminaries Saturday afternoon at Veterans Stadium.

His toss of 186 feet 4 inches was nearly three feet off the winning mark of John Bello of Rancho Cucamonga, who won the event with his second throw, 189-3.

Moser said he couldn’t remember the last time he performed so poorly in the event, but wouldn’t make any excuses. “I just basically wanted to qualify for next week’s finals at Cerritos. I’m pleased that I qualified, because that is what I came here to do. It wasn’t my best, but I did qualify,” Moser said.

Also qualifying in the event for the Southern Section track finals was Esperanza’s Travis Pendleton, who finished fifth (153-0).

Moser wasn’t about to let his performance in the discus get him down. He recovered to take first place in the shotput (55-2 1/2). “The shotput involves less technique than the discus and it’s a little easier to do,” Moser said. Justin Birrell of Edison finished third (53--6 1/2) and Los Alamitos’ Bernard Riley, who placed fifth (51-5), will join Moser in this week’s finals.

In the girls’ discus, Jenny Shutt and Jamie Questa of Edison qualified with throws of 108-10 and 114-1. Also qualifying was Stacy Jarne of Esperanza, who finished fourth (116-1). Shutt and Questa also will compete in the shotput this week, qualifying with throws of 39-3 1/4 and 35-5 1/2.

Only six schools from Orange County competed in the preliminaries, and all came from the Sunset League. Also qualifying for the finals in the 1,600 meters was Jennifer Spahr of Marina (5 minutes 9.92 seconds). She will be the league’s lone representative in the event.

Esperanza sprinter Kimberly Steele qualified in the girls’ 100 with a time of 12.53. She finished second in her heat to Chino’s Angela Williams, who set a Division I record in the event with a time of 11.23. The time eclipsed the mark of 11.32 set by Marion Jones of Thousand Oaks in 1993. Jones still has the Southern Section mark of 11.14, which she set in 1992.

In the girls’ 800, Huntington Beach’s Summer Shaw finished first in her heat (2:16.84) to advance. Huntington Beach distance runner Tony Trueba qualified in the 3,200 when he ran 9:32.10 to finish third in the event’s first heat. He will be joined in the event by teammate Dan Gaston, who finished third in the second heat (9:35.95).

In the relays, Edison qualified in the 1,600 with a time of 3:25.76, good enough for first in its heat.

Edison’s Ray Bartone qualified in the boys’ long jump (21-6) and Travis Vandrovee qualified in the pole vault (13-6).