Track & Field: McCord, Bender are masterful

NORWALK — Sage Hill School senior CJ McCord always strove to get back to the CIF State Track & Field Championships in the high jump.

Newport Harbor senior Hope Bender didn’t even run the 300 hurdles competitively until late April.

Their paths couldn’t have been more different. Yet, both McCord and Bender stepped up Friday night at Cerritos College.

The Yale-bound McCord and the UC Santa Barbara-bound Bender both delivered masterful performances at the CIF Southern Section Masters Meet. As a result, they’ll both be competing in the state meet next weekend at Buchanan High in Clovis, with preliminaries on June 5.

McCord and Bender also both medaled at Masters with top-three finishes. McCord tied for third in the boys’ high jump, clearing 6-foot-7. Bender was third in the 300 hurdles with a time of 43.04 seconds.

Sage Hill junior Chance Kuehnel was the third and final local competitor at Masters, also in the high jump. He failed to clear the initial height of 6-3.

The top six competitors in each event at Masters made the CIF State Meet, as well as anyone who met at-large standards. The at-large standard for the boys’ high jump was 6-7 and it was 43.08 in the girls’ 300 hurdles, so McCord and Bender would have qualified for state even if they hadn’t secured top-six finishes.

McCord, who finished second at the state meet as a junior by clearing a school-record 6-10 1/4, cleared 6-7 on his first try Friday to qualify for state before missing three attempts at 6-9. Sean Lee of Trabuco Hills and Quinten Pounds of Cypress each cleared 6-9 to tie for first.

“[Qualifying for state] was my goal coming into it,” said McCord, who cleared 6-9 last weekend to repeat as CIF Southern Section Division 4 champion. “It was really good competition. I didn’t know it would be this intense and this competitive.”

After his jumps were done, McCord went to the trainer’s tent and got an ice pack on his left knee, which he injured during the basketball season and also bumped during a freak accident at school this week.

“I fell during lunch this week over stairs,” McCord said. “I don’t know. It was stupid, but it’s a little banged up.”

Still, McCord likes his chances heading into the state meet.

“I think I feel pretty confident, knowing that I’ve been there once and I performed my best there,” he said.

Sage Hill jumps coach Ian Jennings agreed, after seeing McCord nearly clear the bar with his second attempt at 6-9.

“It was a little tough this season, him dealing with that knee coming out of basketball,” Jennings said. “The first half of the season, he just didn’t look like himself. But he stayed patient. We just put the focus on league finals, and if we could start a good rhythm from there through CIF, I had no doubt he would make it to state. We were just trying to get a nice uphill swing, and hopefully the state meet will be where he hits his peak on the right day.

“He definitely has the experience from last year. I’m just hoping we’re not so far behind that he doesn’t quite peak at state, that it happens say two or three weeks from now. But he’s been looking better in practice this year at this time than he did last year.”

Bender also is looking good going into her first state meet, even in an event she didn’t consider running seriously until winning it at the Orange County Championships on April 25.

“After that, it was kind of going to be back to business in the 400 and 100 hurdles,” Bender said. “[But] after the performance there, it was, ‘I think we need to stay here.’ That’s what we did, and here we are. I couldn’t be more excited.”

She finished second in Division 2 in the 300 hurdles last weekend at the divisional finals, setting an Orange County record in 42.51. The time on Friday at the Masters Meet was more than a half-second slower, but the goal was to make it to state. Bender did so, gaining momentum after she stutter-stepped leading up to the first hurdle.

Jasmyne Graham of Roosevelt won the race in 41.94.

“I think today I showed my inexperience a little more,” said Bender, who was cheered loudly by her friends in the stands, including Edison graduate Sierra Krenik, as she exited the track following her race. “It was a pretty ugly race, I think, but just to get it done and be on my way up north is incredible … I can definitely knock a couple of tenths [of a second] off going into next week.”

Although she has yet to run the perfect race in the postseason, Bender believes her inexperience in the race also can be a positive for her.

“I think it helps that I’m so new, because I don’t ever get relaxed in those races,” she said. “Each one is another test to see if I can do it again.”

Meanwhile, Sage Hill’s Kuehnel stayed humorous after his first Masters Meet experience. He hopes to return next year.

“Something to look forward to next year, right Chance?” McCord asked his friend with a smile.

Kuehnel appreciated the verbal alley-oop from McCord.

“Definitely,” he said. “I’m [owning] all these guys next year. It’ll be like you, but on steroids. [I’m going] seven foot next year.”