Palmdale’s Smith Executes Giant Leap of Faith

The law of diminishing returns says that a track and field athlete’s rate of improvement will decrease with a rise in accomplishment.

For example, if a runner clocks 4:20 in the 1,600 meters as a junior after running 4:35 as a sophomore, it’s unreasonable to assume that he’ll run 4:05 as a senior.

Jamil Smith and his coaches at Palmdale High don’t buy into it because they haven’t seen any evidence of it in his performances.

Smith entered the state championships at Cerritos College with a career best of 47-11 3/4 in the boys’ triple jump, but he won the event in 49-4 1/4 on Saturday after leading qualifying with a 49-10 3/4 effort the previous night.

“I wasn’t surprised at all,” Smith said of his huge improvement. “I had been working really hard in practice and I was hoping to go 50 feet.”

Smith, a 5-foot-9, 150-pound junior, had a career best of 45-7 at the start of the season and a wind-aided mark of 47-1 1/2 to his credit. But he figured he could go 50 feet after opening the season with a second-place effort of 46-3 in the Northridge-Alemany Relays at Cal State Northridge on March 18.

“I told my Dad, ‘I’m going to go 50 feet. I’m going to go 50 feet,’ after that meet,” Smith said. “And he bet me I couldn’t.”

Reginald Smith actually made two bets with his son.

The first would pay Jamil $250 if he broke the 49-foot barrier. A 50-foot jump would double the amount.

Jamil bounded a wind-aided 48-4 1/4 in a dual meet in April, but the 46-3 remained his career best for most of the season and he finished third in 45-8 1/2 in the Golden League final on May 2.

He went on a career-best tear in the following weeks, however, bounding 46-9 to qualify second in the Southern Section Division I preliminaries on May 12, 47-2 1/2 to place third in the Division I final on May 20, 47-11 3/4 to win the Masters Meet on May 26 and 49-10 3/4 on the first day of the state meet to move to fourth on the all-time region list.

“We’re not really surprised by what he did,” Palmdale Coach Jeff Williams said. “Jamil has been here for three years and every year he’s been improving by about two feet, so we figured he could go 49 feet this year because he went 47 last year. . . . A 51- or 52-foot jump next year won’t surprise us.”

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Although Smith was thrilled to become Palmdale’s first state champion, thoughts of Littlerock rival Rodney Woods kept the victory in perspective.

Woods, a senior, won the triple jump in the Golden League and Southern Section Division I finals, but he was arrested two days before the Masters Meet for his alleged connection in the beating death of Christopher O’Leary, 18, at a party in Palmdale the night before the divisional championships.

“I couldn’t help thinking about him,” Smith said. “I’ve known Rodney since I was 9. . . . I was shocked when he was arrested.”

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Oliver Jackson of Royal didn’t exceed 24 feet in the long jump in as many meets this year as he did last year.

Nor did he jump as far in the state final.

But he won the state title with a leap of 24-4 1/4 after finishing second last year to Robert Kennedy of Sacramento El Camino with a wind-aided jump of 24-8 3/4.

“It was kind of a weird year,” Jackson said. “I didn’t have as many big jumps.”

Jackson, who has signed with UCLA, jumped more than 24 feet in seven meets last year, compared to four this season.

He did improve his school record, however, as his 24-5 3/4 effort in the Ventura County championships at Moorpark High in April added an inch to his previous best set in the 1999 Mt. San Antonio College Relays in Walnut.

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In another bit of irony, Mike Serratos of Chino Don Lugo and Chris Wells-Anders of El Camino Real couldn’t get into the invitational portion of the FloJo Memorial Arcadia Invitational at Citrus College on April 8, but finished 1-2 in the boys’ 800 in the state championships.

Serratos, a senior, clocked a career-best 1:51.75 in the state final and Wells-Anders timed a school-record 1:52.28.

The pair ran 1:53.41 and 1:54.26, respectively, to finish 1-2 in the first heat of the open division of the Arcadia Invitational.

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When Travis Johnson of Notre Dame raised his school record to 60-11 in the shotput to finish fourth in the state championships, it was the farthest put by an athlete from the region since Dave Bultman of Royal won the 1987 state title with a 67-0 effort.

Bultman, a transfer from San Jose Independence, won the discus in 193-6 that year.

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Athletes will have another way of qualifying for the state championships next year, thanks to some recently established at-large entry standards.

In the past, an athlete or relay team could earn an automatic berth in the state championships only by placing among a specified number of finishers in their respective section championships.

For example, the top five finishers in the Masters Meet automatically advanced to the state meet, with the top three qualifying from the City Section championships.

But next year, an athlete who runs 1:55.83 to place seventh in the boys’ 800 in the Masters Meet--like Darren Quinn of Notre Dame did this year--would advance to the state championships because he exceeded the at-large entry standard of 1:56.63.

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Sophomore Michelle Rivera of Birmingham, runner-up in the girls’ pole vault in the City championships last month, will represent El Salvador in the Central American Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on July 15-17.

Rivera, who has a career best of 10-8, was born in the United States, but is eligible to represent El Salvador because her parents were born there.

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Track Top 10

Final rankings of teams from the region

BOYS

*--*

RK LW School (League) 1 1 Taft (West Valley) 2 2 Cleveland (West Valley) 3 3 Birmingham (West Valley) 4 4 Notre Dame (Mission) 5 5 Palmdale (Golden) 6 6 Ventura (Channel) 7 7 Rio Mesa (Pacific View) 8 8 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 9 9 Hueneme (Pacific View) 10 10 Royal (Marmonte)

*--*

*

GIRLS

*--*

RK LW School (League) 1 1 Taft (West Valley) 2 2 Birmingham (West Valley) 3 3 Rio Mesa (Pacific View) 4 4 Cleveland (West Valley) 5 5 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 6 6 Notre Dame (Mission) 7 7 Camarillo (Pacific View) 8 8 Highland (Golden) 9 9 Crescenta Valley (Pacific) 10 10 Westlake (Marmonte)

*--*

STAT OF THE WEEK

When freshman Allyson Felix of L.A. Baptist High and junior Alexis Weatherspoon of Grant clocked 23.90 to tie for second in their qualifying heat of the girls’ 200 meters in the state track and field championships at Cerritos College in Norwalk last Friday, they moved into a tie for seventh on the all-time region list.

Time, Name, School, Year

22.58#, *Marion Jones, Thou. Oaks, 1992

23.19, Sherri Howard, Kennedy, 1980

23.25, Denean Howard, Kennedy, 1982

23.45, *Angela Burnham, Rio Mesa, 1988

23.59, Simone Cain, Hueneme, 1988

23.87, *Madette Smith, Quartz Hill, 1986

23.90, **Allyson Felix, L.A. Baptist, 2000

23.90, *Alexis Weatherspoon, Grant, 2000

23.99, **S. Hauser-Price, Notre Dame, 1998

24.05, Erin Reed, Taft, 2000

#--national high school record. *--junior. **--freshman. Others are seniors.