Bethel Can’t Overcome This Hurdle

Track and field is known for its split-second finishes and attention to detail, but there was nothing precise about an awkward running of the girls’ 100-meter high hurdles Friday night at the Southern Section Masters meet.

As Mission Viejo’s Dana Bethel approached the third hurdle along the back straightaway at Cerritos College, she came to a sudden stop as the rest of the field raced ahead.

After the race, most of the runners said the third and fourth rows of hurdles were too high, and they pointed to the slow times as proof.

“That’s empirical evidence right there that something was wrong,” Mission Viejo Coach Fred Almond said. He noted that winner Nicole Denby of Riverside North had a time of 13.92, more than a half a second slower than her national-best time.

Bethel, who had the third-best qualifying time, was in tears after the race. She was helped off the track by two other runners and Pasadena Muir Coach Roger E. Mosely, who also complained about the hurdles.

“You can tell by the way they ran the race,” Mosely said. “Those hurdles were all out of sync.”

Coaches from across the section descended on meet officials at the west end of the bleachers to plead Bethel’s case and demand that the race be rerun.

Los Angeles Marymount Coach Roosevelt Ivory provided a video of the race for meet officials that he said clearly proved that the third and fourth flights of hurdles were three inches higher than the 33 inches they should have been.

Meet co-director Hal Harkness disagreed, and so did Esperanza girls’ Coach Al Britt, whose runner, Julie Handy, was the fifth and final state qualifier. Her time of 15.83 was more than a second slower than the time she posted a week ago at the Division I finals.

Almond also filed a written protest, but it was denied.

“[The tape] doesn’t mean anything,” Harkness said. “There’s no reason to rerun this race from our perspective.”

Later, Almond searched for Bethel, who he said might have tweaked a knee going over the hurdles.

“All of these girls worked hard to get this far,” Almond said. “They are all finely tuned athletes who expect everything to be the way it is supposed to be.”