DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:Sea Kings’ Liu goes extra mile

Tiffany Liu has a lot on her mind.

It’s her senior year so there are classes to focus on in the present and what college to attend in the future.

And when Liu steps onto the track the workload does not get any easier. Liu regularly competes in four events, the long jump, triple jump, 100-meter hurdles and 300 hurdles. Her individual performances have been crucial to the Sea Kings’ success as a team.

Liu won three events in the Pacific Coast League finals last season to help Corona del Mar to its fourth consecutive league title. Last week in the season opener, Liu picked up four victories, Corona del Mar took a 74-53 victory over Fountain Valley and Liu earned Daily Pilot Female Athlete of the Week honors.

“I think I do help, but it’s not just me,” Liu said. “It’s not just one specific person. I think I do contribute. There are a lot of people who contribute.”

With her four events unique in their own right, Liu must come to each focused solely on the task at hand. Throughout a meet the variety also requires her to manage her time to fit in events, including a warmup, as she constantly moves around the track.

“I have learned to focus better,” Liu said of how she has improved since she was a freshman. “It’s hard to keep track of things. You can’t do well in one event while you’re thinking about another.”

And the difficulty is not only confined to meets. In practice, Liu has four different coaches, sometimes receiving conflicting ideas. But whatever Liu hears, she always listens. In the Battle of the Bay Wednesday, Liu planned to compete in three events, but Corona del Mar Coach Bill Sumner asked her if she could do four events and Liu quickly replied with a confident, ‘Yes.’

“She does whatever it takes,” Sumner said. “She helps us a ton. She always says ‘What would you like me to do today?’ ”

What Liu provides for the Sea Kings is a combination of speed and agility. Third-year hurdles Coach Gordinier Todd has watched Liu improve in her ability to meld the two together.

“Three years ago she wasn’t running in the 300,” Todd said. “It’s her dedication and work ethic. She obviously has talent, but she’s the first one out to practice and the last one to leave. And she’s a great leader. It takes speed obviously, but it also takes agility. What you see are the agile athletes doing well in the hurdles. It’s just as important as speed.”

But speed is a big part of Liu’s game whether she is competing in the jumping or hurdle events. In all of her events Liu must combine her speed with technique.

Standing at the red line for the long jump, Liu imagines how she will propel herself off the ground.

“I have to explode, I think about how it feels,” Liu said. “When you do it right you know. You can’t really describe it. In the triple jump, I have to concentrate on cycling my legs around. It’s not hard, you just have to be focused. They’re all different, you can’t compare them.”

This season, Liu has her mind on making the Masters meet again and breaking her personal records. She recorded a mark of 17 feet, 10 1/4 inches in the long jump and 37-1 in the triple jumped for fourth- and first-place finishes, respectively, at the CIF Southern Section Division III meet, which Corona del Mar won last year.

Liu said her top time in the 100 and 300 hurdles are in the high 15- and 48-second ranges, respectively.

“It’s going to take the same as always, more hard work,” Liu said. “We’ll see how the season goes.”

With so much on her mind, Liu is only concentrating on the short term.

TIFFANY LIU

Hometown: Newport Beach

Born: Aug. 15, 1989

Height: 5-foot-6

Weight: 120 pounds

Sport: Track and field

Events: 100-meter hurdles, 300 hurdles, long jump and triple jump.

Coach: Bill Sumner

Favorite food: Chinese food

Favorite movie: Classic Disney movies

Favorite athletic moment: “Qualifying for the Masters meet last year and having a chance to compete in the Masters. It was a pretty incredible feeling to qualify.”

Week in review: The senior won four events, the 100 hurdles (16.8 seconds) and 300 hurdles (52.3), as well as the long jump (15 feet, four inches) and triple jump (34-10 1/2 ), to help the Sea Kings beat Fountain Valley, 74-53, in Corona del Mar’s season opener Feb. 28.