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2007 San Diego Multi-Event Championships

Eastlake's Marathon Man, Part 2

Posted June 15, 2007

Nelson Rosario or Whitney Sisler? Austin Jett or Sara Macey? Who's the best all-around high school track and field athlete in San Diego County ?

El Camino's Rosario, a three-event champion at this year's San Diego Section championship meet, and La Costa Canyon's Sisler, the reigning state girls high jump champion, may rack up their points in honorary titles handed out by the media. But it was Eastlake's Jett, a two-time state meet medalist in the boys 1,600-meter run, who joined Vista's Macey, a state qualifier in the girls high jump this season, at the top of the leader board at the event that aspires to tabulate the best all-around prep track and field athletes in the region: the San Diego High School Multi-Event Championships.

The annual post-CIF meet, held June 9-10 at Cuyamaca College , attracted a field of 18 individuals. Meet organizer Lyle Barton, a pole vault and multi-event coach at Cuyamaca College and pole vault coach at West Hills High School, would like to see the entry field expand but acknowledges that the scope of the meet — 10 events for boys and seven events for girls spread over two days — may be a bit too daunting for many high school athletes, not to mention event-specialized superstars, to get an handle on.

The event also comes at a time of the year when many prepsters are either already dreaming about imminent summer vacations, are still bleary-eyed from grad night celebrations or have actually graduated.

It remains, however, one truly fun event for those who dare to try something new.

Jett and Macey were certainly worthy champions this year, adding their names to an honor roll that includes such noteworthy iron-men and iron-women as Hilltop's Kathy Sorenson (1994) and Kurt Klaser (1989), West Hills' Mike Cunningham (a two-time winner in 2001-02), Calvin Christian's David Dillow (a two-time winner in 2004-05), Tri-City Christian's Sarah Brown (a two-time winner in 2005-06) and Sweetwater's Erin Asay (2001).

Asay went on to a highly-successful pole vault career at SDSU while Mar Vista's Ben Knight (who set the men's javelin throw record in 2000 at 168-6) went on to claim the NAIA decathlon championship while attending Dickinson College in North Dakota.

In short, the boys decathlon and girls heptathlon that comprise the San Diego High School Multi-Event Championship meet have helped launch some impressive college careers. Asay and Knight, in fact, got their careers off the ground at Cuyamaca College following graduation from high school.

Jett is headed to UC Berkeley this fall to run cross country and track and field. After finishing runner-up to West Hills' Jeremy Root in last year's decathlon points battle, the Eastlake distance runner set a meet record in the 1,500-meter run this year to secure first place after entering the final event in second place.

“There were a few guys who did this last year. It definitely helps,” said Jett, who topped the field with 4,523 points. “You know what to expect.”

Root, by the way, won this year's Foothill Conference men's decathlon title for Cuyamaca College .

“It was very competitive both days — a lot of good marks,” said Barton, who was admirably supported in the meet by athletes from West Hills High School . “It was very enjoyable to watch.”

Jett finished the first day of competition with a commanding 542-point lead in the boys decathlon, causing fellow competitors to wonder if he was even catchable. As it turned out, Jett had to turn on the after-burners in the 1,500 run to erase a 137- point deficit against West Hills super sophomore Kyle Wilson in the point standings.

Jett's 4:06.1 time shattered the existing meet record of 4:16.1 (set 2000) and was the third-fastest time in the event posted in his prep career. His previous two best times in the event were 3:58 and 4:01 (both set at the Mustang Invitational). He racked up 909 points with the meet record time — out-distancing Wilson by a whopping 670 points in the event.

Wilson , whose specialty event is the pole vault, finished last in the 12-deep field with a 1,500 time of 6:06.2. Jett lapped three runners — not an easy feat in the 1,500 distance. Wilson finished second in the decathlon with 3,990 points.

West Hills senior A.J. Spradlin finished third in the decathlon with 3,872 points, followed by teammates Micah Ninteman (3,854 points, fourth), Sean Donnellan (3,565 points, fifth), Michael Gonia (3,501 points, sixth) and David Frank (3,465 points, seventh). The top six finishers received medals.

“Not bad for a bunch of distance runners. Not bad for a bunch of pole vaulters,” Barton said with a smile.

Macey, who placed second at the section meet with a high jump mark of 5-6, posted top marks in four of the seven events: 100 hurdles (17.7), high jump (5-6.5), shot put (24-1.5) and long jump (15-8.25). She finished second in the javelin throw (81-3) and 800 run (2:43.40) and third in the 200 dash (29.5) en route to tabulating a girls meet-best 3,606 points.

West Hills' Brittany Blockson finished second with 2,970 points, followed by a highly competitive field that included La Jolla's Gina Schumacher (2,863 points, third), West Hills' Brooke Spradlin (2,821 points, fourth), Westview's Kortney Ross (2,565 points, fifth) and West Hills' Fatima Gomez (2,065 points, sixth).

Blockson topped the field in the javelin throw (86-6) while Schumacher turned in the best 800 time of 2:39.8. Schumacher and Ross tied with the top 200 time of 28.8.

Macey said she hadn't competed in the hurdles since her freshman year. “The 800 was hard because I haven't really been running that much,” she said. “The javelin's pretty fun but it hurts your arm. It makes you really sore, if you were a pitcher. I practiced shot put (after completing the first day). I had to get the glide down. My best in the high-jump is 5-7 and we got pretty close to that.”

Barton said the running events — 100, 400 and 1,500 —are the easiest events in which to compete in a decathlon. “Those are pure running events,” he said.

The toughest events in a decathlon, especially for a first-time participant, would be the hurdles, high jump and pole vault, according to Barton. “You can fake it with the other stuff but not those events,” he said.

The toughest events in the heptathlon? The hurdles and high jump, Barton said.

“If you can do well in the high jump and hurdles, you can be a very good heptathlete,” he said.

Jett, who totaled 4,494 points last year, won the 2007 title despite having what he termed “a really bad” second day.

In the first day of competition, the tall redhead had soared to the lead by placing first in the high jump (5-6) and 400 dash (51.1) and second in the 100 dash (12.2), long jump (17-2.75) and shot put (29-10).

However, he opened the second day by being disqualified in the 110 high hurdles because of a technical violation and finished third in the discus throw (73-8), fourth in the javelin throw (108-9) and fifth in the pole vault (8-0). That left the 1,500 run — his specialty event — as his saving grace.

“My second day was really bad except my 1,500 time. (The second day of competition) was more technical stuff,” said Jett, who puts in between 30 and 40 miles of road work each week. “Overall, I finished with more points than last year even though I was DQ'd in the hurdles. It was fun. I came out here to have fun.”

Because he had been focusing on competing in the 1,600 at the state meet, Jett said he had little time to practice for this year's decathlon, so much of what he accomplished this year was based on natural athletic ability.

Barton called Jett a “well-rounded” athlete.

“It's a lot of training,” said Jett of preparing to compete in the decathlon.

Over the two days of competition, a sense of camaraderie — as well as friendly competitiveness — developed among the group.

Wilson took over the lead with two events remaining after tying Ninteman for the top mark of 10-11.75 in the pole vault after previously finishing second in the 110 high hurdles (a personal record 18.4) and javelin throw (118-4). Spradlin, meanwhile, was just 121 points behind Jett after opening the second day of competition with the top time in the 110 hurdles (17.9) and posting third-place marks in the pole vault (8-6) and javelin throw (108-11).

Wilson, who finished fifth in last year's eight-man field with 3,276 points, said the secret to success in the decathlon is “more training.”

“Last year, we had two weeks of training. This year, we had a month,” Wilson said. “This year I had more training in the hurdles. Last year I had a crash course. I also ran the hurdles in track meets this year.”

Spradlin expected to compete in last year's decathlon until he was felled by a foot injury. He was out several weeks with that injury and later incurred another injury that ate up most of this year's high school track and field season. He is someone whose potential has largely gone untapped. He showed flashes of what he is capable of at this year's decathlon.

“I'm stoked to get this (third place) because of my ankles,” Spradlin said.

Spradlin, who recorded top marks in both the long jump (17-8.25) and shot put (31-8.75) in the opening day of competition, said he pulled back into contention after realizing what he had set out to accomplish: to have fun.

“The first day I was worried too much,” Spradlin said. “In the pole vault, I asked myself what I was doing here. I told myself that I'm here to have fun.”

The javelin throw — an event completely foreign to high school ovals — seemed to attract the most interest from this year's entry field, male and female alike.

“You got to throw a spear,” Wilson said. “It's like hunting except there's no animal.”

The meet ended with Wilson 's least favorite event: the 1,500 run. “It's a long distance for me. I'm more of a sprinter,” he said. “In order to take first place, I had to run something like 4:30 in the last event (the 1,500). That was not going to happen.”

Jett predicted that Wilson will leave his mark on the event in the coming two years. “He's going to do real well in this,” the reigning San Diego decathlon champion said.

Few of his fellow competitors doubted that Jett should have won. “He deserved it. He pushed it,” Spradlin said of Jett.

Most of Jett's rivals were worried about breaking 5:00 in the 1,500 run, forget about winning it. In fact, only one of the other 11 competitors managed to come in under 5:00 — West Hills' Gonia (4:47.2). Donnellan, also from the Wolf Pack, posted the third-best time of 5:03.2.

A qualifier in the 400 dash at the Grossmont North League track and field finals, Donnellan said the most challenging events for him were the shot put (seventh, 24-7.75), discus throw (second, 77-10), pole vault (12th, 6-0) and javelin (seventh, 83-3). He opened the competition by finishing second in the 400 dash (57.1) and third in the 100 dash (12.4) but was fifth in the long jump (16-1) and seventh in the high jump (4-7.75).

“I just told myself that whatever I do is just the best I can do and that I had to just keep going strong,” Donnellan said.

That summed up Jett's performance at this year's state track meet. He placed fifth in the 1,600 finals but led the field for the first three laps before being passed in the final 300 meters by four runners who had been hoping to find a break in the race. University City sophomore Mac Fleet, whom Jett had beaten by two seconds at the section finals, moved up to take a meteoric second-place finish.

“It was great to be there,” Jett said. “I had high hopes. I went out pretty fast. But I still wound up beating my times from last year. I went out too fast. I should have gone a 61 or 62. I had been practicing a lot on my pace and my pace wasn't there at the end. I wasn't too disappointed because I left it all on the track.”

Ditto for last weekend.