Girls track: CdM’s Mahler records fastest time in Orange County

this year

Richard Dunn

MISSION VIEJO - As soon as Corona del Mar High senior Jaycee Mahler

cleared every hurdle and crossed the finish line in a blazing 47.08 in

the girls 300-meter intermediate hurdles, she knew her performance was

something special.

In the featured race, and the fifth of five heats Saturday in the 10th

annual Trabuco Hills Track and Field Invitational at Trabuco Hills High,

Mahler finished second behind Morgan Altizer of Thousand Oaks, the

overall winner in 46.51.

But Mahler, who finished third overall (behind runner-up Susan Jackson

of Oxnard in 46.56), recorded the fastest time in Orange County this

year.

“I felt I did my best (this season),” Mahler said, before knowing her

clocking topped the previous county high-water mark of 47.4, achieved by

El Toro’s Danielle DeBeaubien.

Mahler, whose previous best this year in the event was 48.4, is

starting to play a little catch-up, despite having competed for the Sea

Kings every spring.

Mahler, part of CdM’s CIF Southern Section Division III champion 1,600

relay last year with Liz Morse, Jenny Cummins and Becky Cummins, spent

her junior year and part of her sophomore year at Monte Vista High, the

Back Bay continuation school.

“I needed to get caught up on my credits,” said Mahler, who was still

eligible to compete on Coach Bill Sumner’s track team. “I had a problem

in school. I didn’t want to sit still and I just gave up on myself.”

Last winter, Mahler played soccer for the first time in two years and

discovered her athletic future. She played as a freshman, but, upon

returning to the field last season, she was unsure about her skills.

“I was shocked at the way I came out,” said Mahler, who helped CdM win

the Pacific Coast League championship in 2001. “After a long time of not

playing, a lot of players forget how to play. But it was still there.”

Prior to the season, friends encouraged her and were excited about

Mahler returning to soccer, and that helped Mahler regain some

self-confidence, which seems to have spilled over to the track, where the

hurdler and relay runner now sits atop Orange County’s best.

“I’m hoping to get top three at CIF (in the 300 hurdles),” Mahler

said. “I’d like to win it, but I need a lot of adjusting right now.”

Mahler is also improving in the 100 hurdlers, in which her personal

best is 16.9. “I just learned how to three-step,” Mahler said of the

shorter hurdle race, which she won against Northwood last week in a

Pacific Coast League dual meet.

So will Mahler put up her county-leading 47.08 in Saturday’s Orange

County Championships, also at Trabuco Hills? “Maybe,” she said. “You

never know with me. I’ve been really busy with soccer right now. But I’ll

probably be there at Orange County.”

Mahler’s favorite sport is soccer. She intends to play next season at

a community college. Today, she’s scheduled to play with the Cypress

College club team in a scrimmage. “I play with different colleges,” she

said.