Newcomer Swain Tests a Talented Field

The high school outdoor track and field season doesn’t begin for another month and a half, but six defending section individual champions from the region and one talented newcomer will compete in the San Diego Indoor Games starting at noon today at the San Diego Sports Arena.

Anita Siraki of Hoover, Porchea Carroll of Rio Mesa and Deneeka Torrey of Taft will run and freshman Treani Swain of Oakwood will make her high school debut.

Swain, who could be the best athlete to compete for tiny Oakwood since basketball player Mitchell Butler in the late 1980s, ran a scintillating 53.71 in the 400 meters as an eighth-grader last year and clocked 2:09.00 in the 800 as a seventh-grader in 1998.

Swain is entered in the 880-yard run against a field that includes senior Angelita Green of Long Beach Poly, who ran 2:09.61 in the 800 as a freshman.

Siraki, a junior, won the 1,600 and 3,200 meters in the Southern Section Division I finals last May and finished fifth in the 3,200 in the state championships in June. She followed that with a superb cross-country season in which she won Division I titles in the section and state championships and placed fourth in the national final in December.

She’ll run in the two-mile against a field that includes UC Irvine-bound Abby Miller of Henderson, Nev., and UCLA-bound Valerie Flores of San Pedro.

Miller placed 14th in the national cross-country final and Flores was 19th, but Coach Greg Switzer of Hoover doesn’t expect the race to be particularly fast because it’s so early in the season.

“[Anita] is just going down there to compete,” Switzer said. “We want her to run a two-mile and a mile during the indoor season, and this will be her two-mile.”

Carroll, defending Southern Section Division I champion in the girls’ long jump, competes in that event and in the 55-meter dash.

She’ll meet junior Dana Bethel of Mission Viejo in the long jump and junior Lashinda Demus of Long Beach Wilson and sophomore Tracee Thomas of Riverside J.W. North in the 55.

Bethel was second in the long jump in the state championships.

Demus, Track & Field News’ 1999 national girls’ athlete of the year, won the 300 low hurdles in a national sophomore record time of 40.44 in the state meet and placed third in the 100 highs.

Thomas was second in the 200 and third in the 100, one place ahead of Carroll.

Torrey, defending City champion in the 100 highs and the 300 lows, will compete in the 55 highs against senior Nichole Denby of J.W. North and Bethel.

That pair finished first and second in the 100 highs in the state meet.

Seniors Fernando Lopez of Taft, Clark Goodwin of Ventura and junior Melissa Astete of Birmingham are the other defending section champions from the region who’ll compete.

Lopez, 1999 City champion in the boys’ high jump, competes in that event and in the long jump.

Goodwin, defending Southern Section Division II champion in the boys’ 400, is entered in the 500-yard run.

Astete, two-time defending City champion in the girls’ pole vault, will compete in that event.