State Title No Strain for DeGrammont

It wasn’t the mark Dominique DeGrammont, The Times Orange County boys’ track and field athlete of the year, was looking for, but it was one he was happy to get at the state finals last week at Sacramento City College.

With Long Beach Poly’s Ken-Yon Rambo to his right and upstart Sharif Paxton of Los Angeles Crenshaw on his left, DeGrammont limped into Lane 4 for the start of the 110-meter high hurdles with a badly strained hamstring.

But after back-to-back fourth-place finishes at the state track and field finals, DeGrammont had just one thought on his mind: Block out the pain and win the race.

He did just that, turning in the second-best time in the nation this year, edging Paxton at the finish line in 13.48 seconds. Rambo finished third.

“I wanted the [national record of] 13.41, but I’ll take the 13.48,” he said.

There were few who felt DeGrammont would lose the race, but during warmups his hamstring told him otherwise. And halfway through the race he was running third behind Paxton and Rambo. Somehow he leaned past both of them at the tape. Paxton was clocked a tenth of a second slower, while Rambo ran 13.64.

“He has a will to win,” said Tustin Coach Shad Vickers. “He just doesn’t want to lose. In his sophomore and junior years he finished fourth in the state and he told me after that he was never going to lose again.”

DeGrammont finished fourth in the state in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles. He also ran the third leg of the Tillers’ 1,600-meter relay team and anchored the 400-meter relay team. Neither advanced out of the state preliminaries.

DeGrammont, who has signed to play football and run track at Boise State, credits continual speed work and training on the relay team as a key factor in his success.

“My teammates kept me going,” he said.

DeGrammont didn’t know it, but he had more than his relay buddies pulling for him when he left the starting blocks in the 110-meter hurdles. High jumper Lester DeRaad of Tustin stood in the same lane on the track, about 15-meters behind the starting line, cheering DeGrammont’s progress.

“I was scared for a little bit,” DeGrammont said of the final race. “I had to give it a little bit of heart.”

The hamstring flared up at the divisional meet. He tried to hide it, but was limping badly at the finals.

“I look at the bruise he has on that hamstring. It is the size of a grapefruit,” Vickers said. “I think God put his hand down on Dominique and let him run an extra two weeks that he shouldn’t.”