He Goes Down Without a Kick

Kris Monte reached for that final kick in the 800 meters Saturday, the one that carried him to a fourth-place finish at the state track and field finals last season, but it just wasn’t there.

The Capistrano Valley senior turned for the final straightaway, the place where he had passed so many runners during his dramatic postseason run a year ago, but suddenly he was the one getting passed.

Reality finally hit when the results from the Southern Section Division I preliminary were posted at Trabuco Hills High. Monte’s time of 1 minute 59.97 seconds was 21st among the five heats combined, well off the top nine who qualified for next Saturday’s section finals at Cerritos College.

“That’s horrible,” said Monte, who had given up a starting role on the Cougar soccer team to focus on track this season. “That’s not the way I wanted to go out.”

Monte said he has suffered from a lack of quality competition this season. He skipped the Arcadia Invitational last month to go on a church retreat in Mexico and missed most of the other weekend invitationals.

“I didn’t have anybody push me all season,” said Monte, who will continue running at Azusa Pacific next season.

Monte was just beginning his surprising run at this time last season. He grabbed the final qualifying spot into the Masters and state meets.

His time at the state preliminaries was the slowest among the nine who qualified for the final, but he again took advantage of the opportunity, speeding by several runners to finish fourth in 1:53.26, the fourth consecutive week he trimmed a second off his time.

At Saturday’s preliminaries, Monte knew early on he was facing an uphill battle.

“I just didn’t feel it before the race,” Monte said. “I knew I was dead when I started losing my arms, then when they started passing me in the straightaway, I said, ‘I’m done.’ ”

As bad as the 800 was for Monte, it was the race of a lifetime for Fountain Valley senior Jason Graney, who was the top qualifier in the event with a time of 1:55.27.

This is Graney’s first season of high school track and field. He played baseball for the Barons the previous three years, but didn’t like his prospects as a starting pitcher heading into this season.

His times in the 800 hovered near the two-minute mark until he ran 1:57.44 at the Sunset League finals last week.

“Everything is starting to peak,” Graney said.

Mario Bassani of Irvine should be a favorite in the 400 after earning top qualifying honors by more than a second. His time of 47.85 is the fastest by a county runner in a high school meet since Esperanza’s Roshawn Sims went 47.73 in 1991.

Esperanza senior Maribeth Buche was the top qualifier in the 800 with a time of 2:12.63, a personal best by nearly two seconds.

Mission Viejo senior Dana Bethel had the second-best qualifying marks in the 100 hurdles (14.26) and long jump (18-2); Fountain Valley’s Nick Arciniaga was the second qualifier in the boys’ 1,600 (4:19.18); and Esperanza’s Shalice Pugmire was the second qualifier in the girls’ 1,600 (5:04.60).

Pugmire also qualified in the 800 (2:17.11).

In the Division IV preliminaries:

Parkinson leads St. Margaret’s--St. Margaret’s junior Jocelyn Parkinson had the division’s leading qualifying time in the 300. Parkinson finished in 46.22 at Mt. San Antonio College. She also qualified in the 100 hurdles with a time of 16.02, also a season best.

Two other Tartan runners earned qualifying berths--Shannon Holato, who ran a personal-best 1:00.66 in the 400, and Ligaya Lange, who ran a personal-best 5:11.14 in the 1,600.

“Our highest team finish [in the section finals] was 11th,” St. Margaret’s Coach Mike Allison said. “It would be nice to finish higher than that.”

Parkinson was also the top qualifier in the 300 hurdles at the Division IV finals last season, but was disqualified in the final because of a false start. Chris Ostoich qualified for St. Margaret’s in the boys’ pole vault. He has a good chance for a title because he has the best mark, 13-6, in the division this season.