Prep Review : Saddleback’s Baker a Tough Runner to Defeat : When It Comes to Beating This Sprinter, There Aren’t Many Effective Methods

Track records continue to tremble upon Teddy Baker’s approach.

The Saddleback High School sprinter fled with another meet record at the Orange County Championships Saturday, making him the only person to currently hold more than one track record at the Mission Viejo meet.

Baker broke the 200-meter mark last season as a junior. Saturday he consolidated

the sprint marks under one roof, running 100 meters in 10.64 seconds to break the record of former Santa Ana Valley runner Elliott Dunning.

It seems as if there are only two ways to prevent Baker from winning county races. One is to match him against his friend Chip Rish, the defending state 400-meter champion from Marina High School. But even that method is not sure-fire.

In their first-ever meeting at this season’s Irvine Invitational, they split. Baker won the 100, Rish the 200. They didn’t face each other Saturday

at Mission Viejo because Marina competed in the Pasadena Relays, and Rish was away on a ski trip.

The only other way to stop Baker from winning is by fluke disqualification. That nearly happened Saturday.

Jim Knapp, Saddleback track coach, was called upon to show his own sprint technique after hearing the runners’ names announced

for Saturday’s 200-meter final. The name Teddy Baker--the same name that appears in the record book under the familiar heading “200 meters”--was not among the finalists.

Knapp dashed up the stairs of Mission Viejo Stadium to find the meet officials. It turned out they had misread a photograph of Baker’s qualifying time. Someone looked at a 22.4, thought he saw a 23.4, and mistakenly dropped the event’s defending champion out

of the running for the 1985 title.

It was a blooper that ranked right up there with awarding the team championship trophy to the wrong school last year.

Because of a scoring error, Santa Ana Valley won the trophy before the 1984 meet was over. Then Saddleback won the pole vault and the mistake came to light. Contrary to reputation, the weary Roadrunners didn’t run, they drove, to Santa Ana Valley to collect their trophy.

eventually worked out with no damage done.

Knapp said he told the meet official, “ ‘Listen, he ran a 22.4 (preliminary time). He’s the best sprinter here!’

“So they had to re-seed the race. Teddy didn’t know about it because he was out practicing for the relay. Fortunately, he didn’t hear the names called, or it would have blown his mind.”

There might be one other way that Teddy Baker could possibly lose--if he had to race with all his medals pinned to his shirt. He isn’t sure of the exact count anymore.

“I think it’s over 50,” he said.

But when his teammates decided to wear their medals to school one day to get psyched up for the first dual meet of the year, Baker had so many that just walking around became a challenge.

“The whole front of my jacket was full. You could hear me coming for miles,” he said, laughing. “I was jingling along.”

When Baker says he gives credit for his success to his family, he is not mouthing a line. His father, Ted Baker, was the 1947 and 1948 Los Angeles City ‘B’ sprint champion from Jefferson High, and later set school records in the 100 and 200 at East Los Angeles College in 1950.

Of course, it also doesn’t hurt an aspiring athlete such as Teddy Baker to grow up on the same cul-de-sac as Clancy Edwards, the former USC track star who set Orange County Championship records at Santa Ana.

And it can only be an advantage to have Noble Franklin, the Santa Ana College and Santa Ana Valley assistant track coach, as the helpful neighbor across the street, and San Diego Padre shortstop Garry Templeton as your big brother’s best friend.

Teddy’s parents got a hint of their youngest son’s potential years ago when his brothers couldn’t catch him in chase games around the house.

“From a kid, he was a fast-mover,” said Inez Baker, Teddy’s mother. “We used to say he was a little bit overactive. But we knew he was going to be fast, and he always liked to run.”

Those abilities, enhanced by Baker’s “workaholic” training habits, according to Knapp, will probably make him only the third track athlete in school history to qualify for the state championships, which he missed by a whisker as a junior.

There has been no one as speedy as Baker at Saddleback in a decade-and-a-half, since Devon Trahan graduated in 1970. Baker bettered Trahan’s 220-yard time last year, and if he can whittle a tenth of a second off his 100-meter time, that school record will also be his.

Trahan works as a security guard at Santa Ana College, and Baker said he sees him driving around once in a while. “I want to tell him I’m after his record,” Baker said.

Meanwhile, his fast-forward momentum is carrying the team along with him. On Saturday, he accounted for 28 of Saddleback’s 50 points, which earned the Roadrunners second place in the meet. And that was on a day when he ran more races--a total of six, including preliminaries and finals in the 100, 200, and 440 relay--than ever before in his life.

“I’m pretty jazzed right now,” Baker said, after winning the 200 meters in 21.80. “But I’m looking forward to the state championships to be the best day of my life.”

Prep Notes

Mater Dei forward Tom Lewis’ social calendar is booked for the next two weeks. Last Thursday, he received the Catholic School Player of the Year award at halftime of the Clippers-Phoenix Suns game. He will participate in the Dapper Dan All-Star game in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night and then return home Wednesday night to receive the California Player of the Year award at the John Wooden Awards banquet. Next, he’ll receive his McDonald’s All-American award at halftime of the Lakers-Portland Trail Blazers game on April 7 followed by a ceremony in which his jersey will be placed in the Orange County Hall of Fame on April 10. Lewis will also compete in the McDonald’s All-American game on April 13 in Dallas. . . . Santa Ana Unified School District Athletic Director Larry Arason has been named as the state’s track rules interpreter. . . . Former Bolsa Grande guard Sherwin Durham of Southern California College was honored as an honorable mention NAIA All-American after averaging 12.8 points and 5.8 assists for the Vanguards. The 6-foot senior was the school’s first player to be honored as an All-American since Paul Anderson in 1978-79.

For The Record: In an account of the recent Loara-El Dorado baseball game, it was reported that the umpires were late for the start of the contest. In fact, one of the umpires, Bob Dahl, did arrive on time. . . . The University baseball team has not only lost two of its three starting pitchers, but its coach as well. Pitchers Jeff Stombaugh and Tom Staff were recently declared academically ineligible, leaving the Trojans with one pitcher, Hawaii transfer student Mark Stride. Following that development, Coach Eddie Allen resigned. Allen is an attorney who had helped the team financially, and assistant coaches handled day-to-day responsibilities. Harry Meader, assistant principal, said Allen resigned in part to try a case in Hawaii for a month, and partly in reaction to the loss of the two crucial players. Allen was not available for comment, according to Meader. . . . Varsity competition in the Woodbridge Easter Softball Tournament begins with six games today. Twelve Orange County teams and one Los Angeles County team will vie for the championship, scheduled for Wednesday. . . . Tom Tullar, Laguna Hills principal, says the school has not yet selected a basketball coach to replace John Moore, who resigned at the end of the season to teach and work as a basketball official. Veteran junior varsity coach Dave King is said to be the leading candidate inside the district.

Saddleback’s Teddy Baker owns two records at the Orange County championships.