Track and field: Jones claims state title

Joseph Boo

NORWALK - The smaller Trevor Jones’ times became, the greater it

seemed.

The Newport Harbor High senior capped off his illustrious prep career

with a microscopic number, 36.60. That was his winning time for the boys

300-meter intermediate hurdles in Saturday’s CIF state track and field

championships at Cerritos College. But it looms even larger outside of

the state meet.

Jones, the CIF Southern Section Division II champion in the 300 hurdles,

as well as the 110 high hurdles, broke a 15-year-old Orange County record

with his winning time. The old mark was held by Keith Pontiflet of

Esperanza, who ran a 36.74 back in 1985. Jones’ clocking is also the

fifth-fastest time in the nation.

The surprising thing about Jones’ 36.60 is that it made for an extremely

tight race with Steven Smith from Serra of Gardena, who led coming out of

the turn. Both of them exchanged the lead twice down the final

straightaway before Jones barely pulled ahead for the victory.

“That was awesome to have him ahead of me on the straightaway,” Jones

said. “It was so good to be pushed this hard. I’ve never been pushed like

that before.”

After the race, Smith was so crushed by the result that he refused to

stand at the medal podium, even though his 36.76 was only the third

sub-37 time in the state. And it was fast enough to give Jones, who had

the previous state best of 36.89, a real scare.

“Usually I’m in first place by the time I come out of the turn,” Jones

said. “But I was running third or fourth. That was a real good eye-opener

because that forced me to break that record.”

Jones, who will run for UCLA next year, was just .04 seconds away from

another state title in the 110 high hurdles. He and Chris Morgan of Los

Angeles-based Taft ran neck-and-neck after the fifth hurdle. Morgan

barely won with a 13.95. Jones ran a 13.99, the ninth-fastest time in the

nation and the seventh-fastest mark in county history.

“I’m very happy with my time,” he said. “My real goal was to run under 14

seconds and I did that. I didn’t care if I finished fifth or sixth. I

just wanted to run under 14.”

Jones usually runs to improve against his own standards instead of the

competition. On that scale, he improved on last year’s seventh-place

finish in the intermediates and he definitely improved since his Sea View

League battles with Irvine’s Al Williams, who won the state intermediates

in 1998.

“When I was a sophomore, I remember running against Al Williams,” he

said. “If I was in the straightaway with him, I thought that was good.”

Now, it is Jones who intimidates the competition and his 36.60 and 13.99

are certainly favorable against any times except for the ones in his

computer.

“Before the season, I wrote in my computer 13.9 and 36.5 as times I

wanted to reach this year and when I wrote 36.5, I thought in my head,

‘Yeah right.’ So I’m very happy with my times and I have no regrets.”

Newport Harbor junior Amber Steen, who was tenth in the girls 3,200 last

year, added another state medal (the top six were medalists) to her

collection with a third-place finish in the 1,600. Steen’s time of

4:51.44 was her second-best lifetime mark and it was roughly two seconds

behind state champ Jenny Aldridge of Santa Rosa-based Maria Carrillo.

Aldridge came from way back to win in 4:49.63.

“I wanted to go out and win,” Steen said. “But I’m very happy with third

place. And I beat who I wanted to beat (Mira Costa freshman Lynn Dixon,

who was fourth with a 4:53.29).”

Steen’s strong effort in the 1,600 and a sore ankle took its toll on the

3,200, where she placed 15th with a time of 10:59.18.

Both Steen and Jones will compete in this weekend’s Golden West track and

field championships at Sacramento.