HAUSER-PRICE SPRINTS TO TOP

Justin Fargas. Rod Arzu. Tiffany Thompson.

Those are the Notre Dame High sprinters who were considered most likely at the start of the track and field season to qualify for the Southern Section Masters Meet in four events.

Freshman Sierra Hauser-Price would not have been mentioned, yet she’s the one that will compete in the girls’ 100 and 200 meters and run legs on Notre Dame’s 400 and 1,600 relay teams today in the Masters Meet at Cerritos College.

Field events start at 4:30 p.m., followed by running events at 6.

The top five finishers in each event qualify for the state championships at Cerritos on June 5-6.

“She’s getting better every week,” Notre Dame Coach Joe McNab said of Hauser-Price. “I think she’s got a chance at making it [to the state championships] in both the 100 and 200. I think she’ll break 24 [seconds] in the 200 [today] and the times are so close in the 100 that I think she could make it there.”

That would be quite an accomplishment for someone who began the first grade a year early, turned 14 in December and is competing in organized track for the first time after averaging 10 points for Notre Dame’s girls’ basketball team.

“Her friends who were on the track team told me that she was pretty fast,” McNab said. “And I watched her play basketball a couple of times. You could see that she got up and down the court well, but it was still hard to tell how fast she was.”

It didn’t take long to find out.

Hauser-Price, whose last name comes from her mother, Fay Hauser, and her father, Louis Price, ran hand times of 11.9 in the 100 and 25.9 in the 200 in Notre Dame’s season opener against Chaminade on March 12.

Two days later, she ran 25.11 to win the 200--and defeat defending City Section champion Eboni Grayson of Taft--in the Northridge-Alemany Relays at Cal State Northridge.

Since then, she has run fully automatic times of 12.19 in the 100 and 24.54 in the 200.

She placed third in the 100 and second in the 200 in wind-aided times of 11.85 and 24.06 in the Southern Section Division III finals at Cerritos last Saturday.

In addition, she teamed with junior Thompson and seniors Melissa Rubey and Stephanie Werth to post second-place and school-record times of 48.29 and 3:55.27 in the 400 and 1,600 relays.

“I’m not really surprised because Coach McNab had told me that I could get this far,” Hauser-Price said. “Now I want to get to the state meet in all four events.”

Porchea Carroll of Rio Mesa, who won the 100 and 200 in wind-aided times of 11.84 and 24.39 in the Southern Section Division II finals, is the other.

The boys’ 100 will be the most eagerly anticipated event of the meet because it includes the four fastest performers in the state in seniors Miguel Fletcher of Alemany and Fargas, and juniors Darrell Rideaux and Kareem Kelly of Long Beach Poly.

Fletcher ran a personal best of 10.36 to edge defending state champion Fargas by .01 seconds in the Division III final, and Rideaux and Kelly clocked 10.36 and 10.39 in the Division I race.

Fletcher will also run against Kelly and Rideaux in the 200.

Fletcher ran a career best of 20.94 to win the 200 in the Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High last month, but Kelly is the state leader at 20.89 and ran a wind-aided 20.53 in the Division I final.

The region will be well-represented in several other events.

Seniors Arzu, Matt Lea of Camarillo and Peter Paplanus of Calabasas will run in the boys’ 400. Arzu will team with Fargas, senior Tony Arredondo and sophomore Chris Yates in the 1,600 relay.

Senior Ryan Meuse of Simi Valley will try to win his second consecutive Masters Meet title in the 800 against a field that includes Nordhoff senior Matthew Torres, who defeated Meuse in the Ventura County championships four weeks ago.

Senior Justin Patananan of Highland and junior Kevin Lelles of Notre Dame will try to lower their personal bests for the third week in a row in the 1,600.

Seniors Dusty Herman of Nordhoff and Aaron Sharp of Santa Clara will be shooting for career bests in the 3,200 for the second consecutive race.

Seniors Elaine Canchola of Nordhoff and Danielle Day of Quartz Hill, junior Lauren Fleshman of Canyon and freshman Jaclyn Pedersen of Royal will run in the girls’ 3,200, with Canchola going for her second consecutive title in the 1,600.

Sophomore Lisa Wygant of Camarillo, junior Anne-Marie Turpin of Simi Valley and sophomore Sara Foster of Valencia will renew their rivalry in the high jump after finishing 1-2-3 in the Division I final.

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BLAZING AHEAD

When Miguel Fletcher of Alemany High won the 100-meter dash in 10.36 seconds in the Division III final of the Southern Section divisional track and field championships at Cerritos College on Saturday, he solidified his hold on second on the all-time region performer list.

Runner-up Justin Fargas of Notre Dame moved to third with his 10.37 effort.

The following is a list of the top performers in the 100 meters.

Time, Individual, School, Year

10.30a, Quincy Watts*, Taft, ’87

10.36, Miguel Fletcher, Alemany, ’98

10.37, Justin Fargas, Notre Dame, ’98

10.3c, Forrest Beaty*, Hoover, ’61

10.3c, Mel Jacobs, Channel Islands, ’71

10.3c, Kevin Williams*, San Fernando, ’75

10.62, Laurence Burkley, Oxnard, ’85

10.4c, Frank Wykoff, Glendale, ’28

10.4c, Ralph Turner, Burroughs, ’61

10.4c, Steve Caminiti, Crespi, ’64

10.4c, Ken Dugan, Crespi, ’65

10.4c, Mark Jenkins, Notre Dame, ’76

10.4c, Ron Williams, Chatsworth, ’77

10.4, Gary Wellman*, Westlake, ’85

10.4, Charles Lee, Cleveland, ’95

a--Mark made at an altitude over 1,000 meters. c--Mark is converted from a 100-yard time. Times in hundredths are full automatic. To convert hand times to fully automatic times add .24 to hand times. *--junior. Others are seniors.