Track and field: Masters of their domain

Joseph Boo

NORWALK - While Corona del Mar High’s Liz Morse made sure her

position as the cream of the girls 800-meter crop wasn’t challenged by

posting the nation’s fourth-fastest time, Costa Mesa freshman Sharon Day

announced her arrival at Friday’s CIF Southern Section Masters Meet in

Cerritos College in an emphatic way.

The 14-year-old Mesa freshman placed second in the girls high jump with a

5-foot-9 effort, topping her own school record by three inches. That was

also the second-best jump in the section this year. Only Edison’s Rachel

Ziemann owns a higher mark in the section with a 5-10, and she set that

on Friday to win the Masters.

The top five in each event moves on to next Friday’s CIF state

preliminaries except in the 3,200, where the top five goes straight to

Saturday’s finals.

Day, the Division III high jump champion, pretty much locked up a place

in the prelims when she cleared 5-6 on her first attempt. She guaranteed

a top five spot when she was successful at 5-7 on her first jump.

“This is such a surprise,” Day said. “I’m so happy right now. I just

wanted to qualify.”

Day set the stage for her duel with Ziemann when she cleared 5-8 on her

second attempt. Only Ziemann, who missed just one jump before 5-10,

cleared 5-8. On Day’s second jump at 5-9, she just brushed the bar. It

wavered a bit, but it stayed put.

“Before the jump, I was saying to myself, ‘Calm down, don’t be nervous,

and just try your best.’ After I cleared the bar, I just thought, ‘Oh my

God.’ I just got so excited.”

After Morse won the 800 in 2:10.71, she had two words for her coach Bill

Sumner, “I’m sorry.”

Morse, the Division III champ in the 400 and 800, wasn’t too thrilled

with her performance, but that’s all relative. Morse’s 2:10.71 is the

fourth-best national time behind the 2:09.40 she ran at the Arcadia

Invitational and the 2:09.35 by San Lorenzo Valley’s Alejandra

Barrientos. But Barrientos will likely skip the 800 in lieu of the 1,600,

making Morse the prohibitive favorite at State.

Her initial strategy of running wire-to-wire was made tenuous when she

was second at the start of the race. Morse ran with the pack for the

first lap, and Sumner thought Morse might get passed up.

But Morse dispelled any worries by pulling away on the second lap. By the

final stretch, all eyes were on the clock to see whether she could break

the 2:10 barrier.

“That’s what I had to do,” Morse said about her strategy. “But it was

just hard to run a fast time. There was the false start, and it was

breezy on the track.”

Sumner then responded, “You know Liz, that was a very fast time for those

conditions.”

To which she answered, “I know, but I’m a perfectionist.”

CdM junior Jenny Cummins placed sixth in the girls 800 with a 2:16.27,

missing her personal record by .26 seconds. The Sea Kings’ Division III

winning 1,600 girls relay team of Morse, Cummins, Jaycee Mahler and Becky

Cummins placed sixth with a 3:55.29, its best time this year and the

fastest in Orange County. Mesa senior Julie Kroening closed out an

eventful year with a ninth-place finish in the girls 300 low hurdles

(46.88).