County’s Best Tune Up at Masters

Orange County athletes prepped for a big showing at next week’s state track and field finals, producing the top qualifying mark in eight events at the Southern Section Masters Meet Friday at Cerritos College.

Newport Harbor’s Trevor Jones was the only county athlete to produce two leading marks, winning the 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles. The top five in each event advance to the state meet, beginning with preliminaries Friday at Cerritos.

“I’m going for personal goals not status goals,” said Jones, whom many consider to be the best multi-event athlete in the state. “My goal was to just come out and run 14.0-something in the 110s and break 37 in the 300s today.”

Jones achieved half of his goals, winning the 110 hurdles in 14.22 seconds, then coming back to win the 300 hurdles in 36.89, which lowered his state-leading time.

The competition in the hurdles was thinned out earlier this week when Littlerock’s Marcus Raines, the second qualifier in both events, was arrested on murder charges after he and another student allegedly beat up a 19-year-old man who later died.

The remaining top qualifiers were: Tustin’s Alonso Smith and Corona del Mar’s Liz Morse in boys’ and girls’ 800, Esperanza Travis Pendleton in the boys’ discus, Marina’s Logan Odden in the boys’ pole vault, Woodbridge’s Michelle Sanford in the girls’ long jump, and Edison’s Rachael Ziemann in the girls’ high jump.

Ziemann was the other top qualifier who produced a personal best, clearing 5-10 in the high jump on her first attempt. Costa Mesa’s Sharon Day finished second with an even bigger lifetime improvement, clearing 5-feet-9 on her second try. Rachael’s twin, Bianca, finished fourth (5-7).

Smith, the state leader in the 800, moved from last to first at the close of the first lap and won the event in 1 minute 53.77 seconds. Smith said the early fast pace caught him off guard.

“I didn’t think the leaders would go [through the first lap] in 54 seconds,” Smith said.

Capistrano Valley’s Kris Monte, who had qualified for Masters in the 800 by .05 seconds, grabbed the final state qualifying spot (1:54.94) after surging from seventh to fifth in the final straightaway.

Morse has the nation’s second-fastest time this season in the 800 (2:09.40) and she took the top qualifying spot in 2:10.71.

Odden and Pendleton, both state leaders in their events, produced solid marks just off their career bests. Odden cleared 16-1, six inches less than his personal best, and Pendleton threw 197-4, just off his career best of 199-2 set at the section finals.

Sanford and Mission Viejo junior Dana Bethel had the top two marks in the long jump, which were just 1/4-inch apart. Sanford was the top qualifier in the event, going 19- 1/2 on her second jump. Bethel went 19- 1/4 on her fourth.

Other second-place finishers were Ryan Bousquet, who missed his personal best by .01 in the 1,600 (4:09.38), Clarence Moore of Cypress in the triple jump (47-2 1/2), Fountain Valley’s Julie Allen in the 3,200 (10:46.54), and Marina’s Caroline Rebello in the pole vault (11-6).

Sanford also qualified in the triple jump (38-5 3/4) and Newport Harbor’s Amber Steen qualified in two events, the 1,600 and 3,200.

The Santa Margarita boys’ team qualified Pat Luke in the pole vault, Jim Lunnen in the high jump and its 1,600 relay team.

Other qualifiers were Garrett Milner of San Clemente in the 1,600, Katella’s Danny Mejia in the 3,200, Century’s Antonio Thomas in the long jump, Esperanza’s Julie Handy in the 100 hurdles, and Newport Harbor’s Krista Dill and Esperanza’s Kristen Thompson in the discus.