Foster Goes Even Lower in the Highs

Chris Foster of Ventura High has been told he’s crazy.

People tell him it’s not possible for someone with a career best of 14.55 in the 110-meter high hurdles in April to break the 14-second barrier by the end of the season.

Improvement in the high hurdles is measured in hundredths--not tenths--of a second when you’re running in the mid-14 second range.

Foster isn’t listening, however.

A sub-14 clocking in the state championships on June 1-2 remains his goal and he took another step toward that milestone Friday night when he won the high hurdles in a school-record 14.18 in the Ventura County championships at Moorpark High.

The meet-record time cut .14 seconds off Foster’s six-day old career best and broke the Ventura County record of 14.20 set by Willie Roseborough of Simi Valley in 1979.

Roseborough’s mark was converted from a time in the 120-yard hurdles, which is slightly longer than 110 meters.

“Everyone keeps telling me that I’m nuts,” Foster said about his goal. “To drop a half second is crazy. But I think anyone can do it if they want it bad enough.”

The 6-foot-4, 180-pound Foster was credited with a hand-held time of 14.1 in a dual meet against Santa Barbara earlier this month, but hand times are notoriously inconsistent in races of 200 or fewer meters.

He had a fully-automatic best of 14.55 two weeks ago, but ran 14.32 to place second in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in Walnut on Saturday.

His performance Friday was nearly flawless as he came out of the blocks quickly and cleared all 10 flights of the 39-inch barriers cleanly to defeat runner-up Justin Johnson of Rio Mesa by more than a second.

“I’ve been working a lot on my speed lately,” he said. “And I’m continuing to work on all the little things [in the hurdles].”

Foster also won the 300 intermediate hurdles in a career-best 39.51.

Senior Julian Gooden of Hueneme won the boys’ 100 in a career-best 10.79, the 200 in 22.08 and ran on the victorious 400 relay team that timed a meet-record 42.36.

It was Gooden’s second consecutive victory in the 100 and Hueneme’s second in a row in the relay.

Senior Porchea Carroll of Rio Mesa won the girls’ 100 in 12.03, the long jump at 17-3, and ran on teams that won the 400 relay in 47.98 and the 1,600 relay in 4:02.97.

It was Carroll’s fourth consecutive county title in the 100 and her third in a row in the long jump.

Senior Jaclyn Pedersen of Royal won the 1,600 in a school-record 5:03.16 and the 800 in a career-best 2:17.56.

Pedersen took the lead early in the 1,600 and held off a late charge by Laura Jakosky of Agoura.

She surged from fifth to first down the final backstretch of the 800 and won by nearly two seconds.

“I wanted to come through the first [lap of the 1,600] in 71 or 72 [seconds],” Pedersen said.

“So when I heard 69, I thought, ‘Oh boy. This is going to be tough.’ ”

Ryan Creadick of Camarillo won the boys’ shotput in a career-best 53-11 1/2 and the discus in 142-9.

Senior Makisi Haleck of Thousand Oaks won his second consecutive title in the boys’ pole vault with a meet-record 15-1, sophomore Phillip Reid of Rio Mesa won his second consecutive title in the boys’ 3,200 with a career-best 9:29.20 and Jakosky won her third consecutive title in the girls’ 3,200 in 10:58.77.