Perry Leaps Past Competition

SACRAMENTO — Two weeks ago, the long jump was no better than Michelle Perry’s third-best event.

But when the finals of that event are held today in the state track and field championships at Hughes Stadium, the Quartz Hill High senior will be the favorite.

Perry saw to that Friday when she spanned a wind-aided 19 feet 8 3/4 inches to lead all qualifiers on the first day of competition. She also advanced to the finals of the 100-meter high hurdles and the 100 with times of 13.96 and 12.04 seconds, yet the long jump was the event in which she produced the only three 19-foot jumps of the qualifying round.

“I’ve been expecting this because I’ve been working a lot more on the long jump in practice,” Perry said. “I’ve believed that I could go this far for a while.”

Ironically, the UCLA-bound Perry has had more time to devote to the long jump in the last two weeks because she has not been competing in the 300 low hurdles. The lows are Perry’s favorite event and the one in which she placed third in last year’s state championships, but she was disqualified for a trail-leg violation after finishing second in the Division I race of the Southern Section divisional championships May 24.

Perry was bitter about being disqualified, but not having to train for the 300 lows has freed up more time for technique work in the long jump.

“I use to only work on the long jump about one day a week,” she said. ‘But now. . . . I’m probably working on the event three or four days a week. And I’m not training for the 300s on Sundays so I’m more rested.”

Perry, who had the second-fastest qualifying time in the 100 hurdles on Friday and was tied for fifth in the 100, won’t have much time to rest between events today. The girls’ long jump will start at 5 p.m., followed by the 100 hurdles at 6:45 and the 100 at 7:17.

“I feel good about the long jump,” she said. “But I also feel like I have a chance in the hurdles. If I can just get a good warm-up for that event, I think I have a shot at [winning]. Competing in the long jump keeps making that hard, but I’ll just have to see what I can do.”

Juniors Miguel Fletcher of Alemany, Justin Fargas of Notre Dame and Ryan Meuse of Simi Valley each won qualifying heats in their respective events Friday.

Fletcher has been saying all season he was training to peak at the state meet, but he had his doubters after finishing fifth in the 100 and fourth in the 200 in the Southern Section Masters Meet on May 30. But he looked stronger than he has all season in winning heats of the 100 and 200 in 10.75 and a season-best 21.13 on Friday.

Fargas, who defeated Fletcher for the Mission League title, took his heat of the 100 in 10.70 and also helped Notre Dame qualify for the final of the 1,600 relay by anchoring the Knights to a second-place and school-record time of 3:14.84 in their heat.

Meuse, who had used a big kick to win the 800 in the Masters Meet, employed the same tactic again to win his heat in 1:54.49 on Friday.

Eboni Grayson of Taft and Courtney Palmore of Oxnard were two other athletes from the region who advanced to the finals of their respective events.

Grayson, the City Section champion in the girls’ 100 and 200, placed third in her heat of the 100 in 12.05 and second in her heat of the 200 in a school-record 24.32. The Toreador junior also ran legs on Taft foursomes that won their heat of the 400 relay in 47.01 and placed second in their heat in the 1,600 relay in 3:47.98.

Palmore, a senior, qualified third in the boys’ long jump with a wind-aided mark of 23-10 3/4.

Heather Sickler of Camarillo failed to advance to the final of the girls’ pole vault. Sickler, who had cleared a region record of 12-3 1/2 to win the Masters Meet, finished 14th at 10-4 on Friday.