It’s Fletcher’s Turn Now as He Beats Fargas in 100

Miguel Fletcher of Alemany High drew first blood in a battle of sprint kingpins in the Northridge-Alemany Relays at Cal State Northridge on Saturday.

Fletcher clocked a wind-aided 10.44 seconds in the 100 meters to defeat Long Beach Poly’s Darrell Rideaux (10.46) and Notre Dame’s Justin Fargas (10.60) in a race that pitted the top three finishers from last year’s state championships against each other.

Fletcher and Rideaux had finished second and third behind Fargas in the state final in Sacramento in June, but they beat him out of the starting blocks Saturday and Fargas never recovered.

Rideaux, a junior, led the race for the first 95 meters before Fletcher nipped him at the finish with a well-time lean.

“I got out really well,” Fletcher said. “I felt powerful. That’s exactly the way I felt.”

Fargas had beaten Fletcher in the final four of eight races against him last season.

“I didn’t feel like my technique at the start was real good,” he said. “And I kind of tied up at the end.”

Fletcher--who later won the 200 in a wind-aided 21.32--and Fargas were philosophical about the race’s outcome.

The USC-bound Fletcher said that the victory helped his confidence, but that there are a lot of races between now and the state championships.

The Michigan-bound Fargas said that the race gave him an idea of where he was in his training.

“This was far from a championship,” he said. “But now I can set my goals from here.”

It was not a great day for Fargas and the Notre Dame boys’ sprinters.

The Knights failed to connect on their final exchange of the 400 relay and finished third in the 1,600 relay behind Taft and Long Beach Poly.

In addition, senior Rod Arzu was a distant fifth in the 400 in 49.66.

Sultan McCullough of Pasadena Muir won the race in 47.85, followed by the Taft trio of Larry Jones (48.17), twin Lawrence Jones (48.93) and Blaine Bussey (49.05).

McCullough, a senior who ran a national-leading 20.62 in the 200 last year, hung off the pace for the first 300 meters before speeding away in the homestretch.

He also pulled away from Fargas on the second leg of the 400 relay to help the Mustangs win in 41.60.

The Taft foursome of Sedric Hurns, Fred Williams and the Jones twins finished second in 42.37 before the Jones’, Hurns and Bussey won the 1,600 relay in 3:20.97.

Senior Frances Santin of Taft turned in a superb performance in the girls’ meet by winning the 100 high and 300 low hurdles and running strong legs on Toreador teams that finished second behind Long Beach Poly in the 400 and 1,600 relays.

“I just feel really strong right now,” Santin said. “I know there are certain things that I can do better in the race, but I’m fit so I’m happy.”

Santin won the 100 highs in a wind-aided 14.50 and clocked an impressive 43.92 in the 300 lows, the third best time of her career and her first sub-44 clocking since the 1996 state championships.

“I wanted to break 44,” she said. “That was my goal.”

In other events, senior Justin Patananan of Highland won the boys’ 800 in 2:00.93 and the 3,000 in 9:12.91 and senior Heather Sickler of Camarillo won the girls’ pole vault at 11 feet 6 inches.

Freshman Schquay Brignac of Cleveland won the girls’ high jump at 5-6 and freshman Sierra Hauser-Price of Notre Dame won the girls’ 200 in a personal best of 25.11.