Griffith Flies High and Far

Darnesha Griffith didn’t need to wait for the mark to be measured. She already knew it was a great one.

Griffith, a senior at Trabuco Hills, soared 19 feet 4 3/4 inches Friday to post the top qualifying mark in the long jump at the Southern Section Masters Meet at Cerritos College.

“I hit the board perfectly and I felt it,” said Griffith, whose previous best leap this season was 18-8 1/2. “As soon as I landed I knew it was over 19 feet.”

Griffith, the niece of Florence Griffith Joyner, also had the top qualifying mark in the high jump (5-9) and the third best in the triple jump (38-2 1/4). The top five finishers in each event advance to next weekend’s state championships at Cerritos College.

“I was going for 5-10 in the high jump, but the long jump and triple jump I was just trying to qualify,” said Griffith, who finished sixth in the state while a junior at Vacaville High School last season. “The triple jump mark is fine, but hopefully I’ll do better next week.”

Santosh Swamidass of El Modena had the top qualifying mark in the boys’ high jump with a leap of 6-9. Swamidass recorded the county’s best mark of the season (6-8 1/4) in a non-scoring meet early in the season but hadn’t gone over that until Friday.

Another event county athletes performed well in was the hurdles. Irvine’s Al Williams, who was third in the state last season in the 300 low hurdles, had the second-best qualifying time (37.86 seconds), but said it wasn’t one of his sharpest races. He knocked over several hurdles, including one hard collision coming off the curve.

“I was just trying to qualify today. I didn’t want to pull anything,” Williams said. “I hit too many hurdles. What I was trying to do was just keep my form good and I don’t think I did that. I think I just hit too many hurdles.”

Williams said part of the problem was that he approaches qualifying meets a lot differently than championship ones.

“Not to say I wasn’t motivated, but it’s just kind of a different mentality,” he said. “Instead of going out there to kill, you’re just going out there to survive.”

James Brown of Dana Hills had the second fastest qualifying time in the 110 hurdles (14.34), an event in which he missed qualifying for state by one one-hundredth of a second last season.

“I was pretty happy, mostly with the middle of the race,” Brown said. “My start was a little slow, so I was just kind of catching up the whole way. I have to start working on that this week.”

Mission Viejo’s Ashley Bethel qualified in the 100 hurdles for the fourth consecutive season with the second-best time of 14.29. Freshman Dana Bethel qualified with the third-fastest time (14.53).

In the 300 hurdles, Santa Margarita’s Amanda Shanklin ran under 44 seconds for the first time this season and finished with the third-best time (43.68).

Orange County also sent several distance runners to next weekend’s state meet.

University’s Allyson Marquand ran the second-fastest time in the girls’ 3,200 (10:48.63). She placed sixth in state in the event last season.

In the 1,600, Christa Fitzgerald of Dana Hills ran 5:03.97 for the third-best qualifying time. Fitzgerald had her best time of the season at last weekend’s divisional championships and knew she had to come close to that effort to advance to state.

“I was kind of scared because I didn’t know if I could get close to my time of last week,” she said.

Two Orange County runners qualified in the girls’ 800. Brea Olinda’s Maika Nelson led the race until the final 100 meters, then finished fourth in 2:15.39.

“I took it out pretty fast, but I was able to pretty much maintain and I came in fourth so I’m happy,” Nelson said. “I felt good pretty much the whole race until the last 50.”

Laguna Hills’ Ashley Furst was battling Arcadia’s Hanna Kim for the fifth spot in the 800, but Kim fell with 40 meters to go and Furst had the final qualifying spot (2:16.07).