After Proving Himself, Lie Sprints to Top

Raymond Lie, a sometime disc jockey, part-time writer and full-time student at UC Irvine, has always been a sprinter.

For a time, convincing other people was the problem. His coaches at San Francisco Lowell High School looked at his rail-thin body and decided he was a distance runner.

So Lie circumvented the decision-making process.

“I was slightly built and, it’s like football, coaches don’t think an Asian guy can be a speed person,” said Lie (pronounced Lee), a junior at Irvine. “I didn’t run the 400 [-meter] relay as a freshman because I couldn’t convince the coach I was fast.”

He had to show him.

“As a sophomore, I snuck into the 200 at the league meet,” Lie said. “San Francisco meets end around 7 p.m. and it was getting dark. So the coaches didn’t really know who was in there. I took another guy’s spot. I won the race and beat the fastest guy on our team.

“Coach was pale. At first he couldn’t tell who won. He was asking, ‘Who just beat Matt Dalton?’ I walked up and kind of said, ‘Well, I did.’ ”

He has been sprinting ever since.

Lie won the 400 in the city championships as a junior and, despite a partially torn hamstring that cost him much of the season, he finished third in the 100 as a senior.

At Irvine, Lie had no problems convincing Irvine Coach Vince O’Boyle where to use him. He has run every sprint event, from the 100 to 400, during his first two years.

Catching a glimpse of Lie, though, may be difficult. Some mornings you hear him as a fill-in DJ on KUCI. Some days you read him when he reviews hip-hop music for the student newspaper.

Lie has run personal bests in the 100 (10.82 seconds) and 200 (22.0) this season. His improvement is again the result of taking matters into his own hands, with a little nudge from first-year assistant coach Jim VanHootegem.

“Jim agreed a lot with my view of training for sprints,” Lie said. “So I’ve become more motivated to go to the weight room. The first two years, I did everything they asked me, but I didn’t spend extra time in the weight room. Now I’m doing Olympic lifts and lead sit-ups.”

For those who don’t know, lead sit-ups are done on a slanted board with the added pleasure of a friend tossing a medicine ball to you every time you come up.

“When I was a freshman, I would see the veterans on the team going to the weight room all the time and would think, ‘Geez, those guys are nuts,’ ” Lie said. “Now I’m the one dragging people into the weight room.”

Not that he doesn’t have other interests.

Lie is a licensed DJ, having taken the course before his freshman year. He said he was unable to get his own show at KUCI because it requires a partner. He fills in some mornings for short periods.

Looking for another avenue to express his opinions, he began writing for the the school’s weekly newspaper.

“I called them and asked if they needed some one to review hip hop and they said I could be the music editor,” Lie said. “I was into jazz. My mom forced me to play the saxophone in middle school. My lessons deteriorated into talking about jazz and the different styles. I started picking up on hip hop.

“We even had a group in high school. I’m still into rapping and MC-ing.”

*

The Irvine women’s tennis team remained undefeated in Big West Conference play by beating UC Santa Barbara, 6-3, Friday. Not that it matters.

Regular-season records mean little beyond helping arrange seedings for the conference tournament. In fact, conference teams are not required to play each other during the regular season.

“The bottom line is you can go 0-6, get hot and win the conference tournament,” Anteater Coach Mike Edles said. “That’s the main thing, right?”

Yeah, but. . .

“We do remember that Santa Barbara beat us, 9-0, last year,” Edles said last week.

Not only that, the Gauchos had beaten the Anteaters nine times since 1988. Irvine hadn’t even won a set since 1993.

Freshman Darian Chappell led the way, winning her singles set and teaming with Liz Yim for a victory in doubles play.

*

Irvine’s golf team has a shot at making the NCAA West Regional. The Anteaters appear to be battling Stanford for the last spot in the 12-team field.

Irvine has finished ahead of the Cardinal in five of the seven tournaments that have involved the two teams since September. That includes Monday, when UCI finished seventh out of 20 teams in the U.S. Intercollegiate tournament at Stanford. The Cardinal finished 15th, 15 strokes behind UCI.

A committee will make the team selections in May. The West Regional will be played May 14-16 in Tucson.

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Coming Attractions

Key events for UC Irvine this week:

* Men’s tennis plays at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Pepperdine and hosts San Diego State at 2 p.m. Friday. The Anteaters have won seven of their last nine matches.

* Women’s tennis hosts Cal State Northridge at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Irvine (10-7) is already guaranteed its first winning record during the regular season since 1992.

* Men’s and women’s track and field will be at the Mt. SAC relays Friday through Sunday and the Pomona College Invitational Friday.

* Men’s volleyball closes its season by hosting top-ranked UCLA at 7 p.m. Wednesday.