She’s a Big Shot in Four Events at Oceanside : Track: At 5-8, 145 pounds no one would expect Angela Sims to throw the shot. But she does that and more, including the triple jump, long jump and 100 meters.

OCEANSIDE —  Angela Sims picked up a 12-pound steel ball toward the end of the track season last year, she can’t remember why, and threw it nearly 35 feet.

She kept at it. In her fourth meet competing in the shotput, Sims, of Oceanside High, had a best toss of 35-feet-1.

A decent mark, but nothing special--except for the fact that the meet was the Avocado League finals and the effort was good for third place.

“Her fourth time throwing the shot and she comes in third in the league, beating out people who have been throwing it for four years,” said Racole Hardy, a former teammate who placed first in the league meet at 39-4 last year. “That was a shock.”

This year, Sims has thrown the shot 35-10 1/2, a mark that is causing Coach Terry Scaife’s phone to ring a bit more often than it used to. Invariably the first question about Sims is “How big is she?”

“When I tell everyone about 5-8, 145 pounds, they all say, ‘Wow, I expected someone close to 170,’ ” Scaife said.

The surprise by the curious should be expected. High school shotputters tend to be, well, very large. They pretty much have to be. If they’re going to throw the 12-pound ball for any distance, they’re going to have to get a lot of weight behind it.

But Sims is not a typical high school shotputter. Not only is she leaner than most, she’s also more versatile. See, Sims doesn’t just throw the shot farther than many of her peers, she also competes in the triple jump, long jump and 100 meters.

Actually, Sims leads the county in both the long jump (17-8) and triple jump (37-5 1/2) and she has not lost a 100-meter dash in five meets this year, turning in a personal best of 12.6.

“She’s just a phenom,” Scaife, said. “A rare few can do what she does. I’ve seen sprinters be good long and triple jumpers. I’ve even seen a couple (male) sprinters be good shot putters. But I’ve never seen anyone do all the things Angela does.”

Sims has dabbled in other events, too. Last year, she high jumped 5-0 and even ran the 100-meter low hurdles, Scaife said.

It’s not that Sims trains hard every day. She doesn’t run long distances. She doesn’t work out with weights. She just practices her events.

“I guess I’m just naturally strong,” Sims said.

Scaife was going on about Sims’ seemingly unlimited talents when he stopped in midstream, having remembered a shortcoming.

“The only bad thing about Angela,” he said, “is that she can only do four events in one meet.”

That’s because of a CIF rule and it might not be as much a hinderance as a help. One of Sims’ goals is to finish in the top five in the state in both the triple and long jump, and to do that she will need to keep practicing both events. The CIF rule will keep her from spreading her practice time too thin, though she still splits her workouts between jumping, sprinting and shotputting.

The long-range plans are to drop the 100 meters before the Avocado League finals in May, then to drop the shot before the state meet in early June.

But as of now, it’s the shot that Sims concentrates on. If she improves in it, she might be able to win titles in three events at the Section finals.

Hardy, who now attends Mira Costa College but does not compete, started working with Sims on her technique earlier this week. She gave Sims some pointers during competition at Thursday’s dual meet against Carlsbad, but they didn’t seem to help much. Sims threw only 34-2.

“She kept telling me all these different things,” Sims said, “So I finally told her, ‘Look, I have an idea. Just watch me throw and write down everything I do wrong and tell me later.’ ”

Hardy had plenty to critique.

As Sims herself said, “I have a little technique, but this year it’s not good.”

On Thursday, Sims looked a little like an outfielder trying to hit the cutoff man--but with a 12-pound ball.

In light of her technical flaws, Sims’ season best of 35-10 1/2, and even Thursday’s 34-2, are impressive. And if Hardy’s advice helps Sims, 40 feet might not be too far off.

Which means Hardy would be helping a former teammate steal her school record.

“I don’t mind if I help her break my record,” Hardy said. “And I think she can do it.”

Hardy, in fact, predicts a first- or second-place finish in the Section for Sims. Judging from past years, that would take a throw of more than 40 feet.

“I think she has the potential, the right mental approach to do it,” Scaife said.

Scaife’s field of expertise, however, lies in the horizontal jumps. On days when Sims isn’t working out with the sprinters or in the shotput ring, Scaife is helping her adjust her approach to the long and triple jumps.

This year Sims moved her step (the point at which a jumper begins her run) back some 30 feet. She now begins 108 feet from the board.

“She’s probably the only high school girl beyond 100 feet,” Scaife said. “At the college level, a good triple jumper takes between 22 strides and 24 strides. Angela is back at 24 strides. Last year she was at 18.”

At first, Sims didn’t want to listen to Scaife about moving her step. But Scaife convinced her to try it just once.

So at the Tiger Relays, the first meet of the season, Sims started her run at 108 feet and triple jumped 37-5 1/2. That still stands as the top mark in the county this year.

She hasn’t neared that since, but she is progressing, Scaife said. She’s also progressing in the long jump. Thursday she improved on her county best of 16-10 with a jump of 17-8.

“I put a lot of pressure on her,” Scaife said. “I expect a lot out of her. She takes a lot of criticism from me and she’s able to handle that.”