El Capitan Hops, Skips and Jumps to Title

Track and field, too, can be a game of inches. El Capitan beat Granite Hills, 70-66, for the Grossmont 3-A League dual meet title Thursday, and it came down to the final triple jump with 300 spectators crowded around the pit.

Granite Hills’ Travis Hughes, who had never triple jumped in competition before, seemed to have second sewn up at 41-feet-7 1/2. Chris Barton, El Capitan’s last hope, had never gone more than 40 feet and hadn’t jumped in three weeks. But Barton unleashed a hop, skip and jump of 41-11 3/4, giving him second by inches and propelling El Capitan to its second consecutive league title and 18th consecutive dual meet victory dating back to the end of 1988.

The number 13 has been lucky for Rancho Buena Vista lately. The Longhorns had 13 hits April 27 against Vista and won, 15-4; they had 13 hits against Torrey Pines and won, 6-3, and they had 13 hits against San Dieguito and won, 10-1. George Hadden, David Roberts and Chris Gorr each had three consecutive multiple-hit games.

Mt. Carmel diver Kelli Manion was the picture of composure Saturday during a San Diego section qualifying meet at Mt. Carmel.

Manion, a junior and two-time defending Palomar League champion, had already surpassed the 11-dive, 260-point standard to automatically qualify for the section finals May 18 at Helix. This meet was just practice for Manion and six other competitors who had also already qualified.

As Manion took to the board on her 10th dive, she was putting the finishing touches on her lunch, licking her fingers in the process.

“Oh my gosh, Kelli’s up there eating,” said a voice from the stands.

Her entry into the water, luckily, was feet first. For the record, Manion won handily.

Just two weeks ago, Grossmont’s John Tatum was third in the county in home runs with six. Tatum has hit two home runs in each of two games since then and now has the county lead over Christian’s Tony Clark, 10-9.

Tatum, a senior, has three two-homer games and 33 RBIs.

No. 1 Grossmont is undefeated in the Grossmont 2-A League (5-0) and is 22-2 overall. Cal Hi Sports ranked Grossmont third in the state in the 3-A division and sixth overall in Southern California.

How trusting have track meet officials become of their electronic equipment? Consider the following:

At the Mt. SAC relays April 21, University City High’s Jerome Price long jumped 25-feet-4 3/4, a quarter-inch shy of his section-leading best of the year. Lincoln sophomore Scott Hammond went 23-5 1/2, his best ever.

No wind could be felt by either competitor, nor by two reporters watching the event some 20 yards away. A flag just to the side of the runway hung limp. But the wind gauge measured a “ghostly” gust of 3.22 meters per second, well over the allowable 2.0 meters. The reading kept the jumps from being considered among county and state leaders.

Asked if the readings could have been off, Dan Shrum, the meet director, scoffed.

“The wind just doesn’t blow (continually),” he said. “Sometimes it’s there and sometimes it’s not. We’re using a certified wind gauge with a TAC (The Athletics Congress) official reading it. The wind can be blowing one place in the stadium and not 10 feet away.”

Well, the next day, after some elite athletes voiced the same complaint as Price and Hammond, it was found that the gauge was actually giving readings in miles per hour.

Oops. The marks by Price and Hammond were legal after all.

Price had already gone 25-5, so the new finding does not concern him as much as it does Hammond, now third in the section with his legalized 23-5 1/2.

Shrum, who confirmed the new readings through his secretary, could not be reached for comment.

Staff writers John Geis, Kim Berkshire and Martin Henderson contributed to this story.