Warrior boys tie for second at CIF track and field meet, Sumpter, Lian, Hasvold qualify for state meet

Fallbrook High School’s boys track and field team tied for second among Division I schools at the CIF track and field meet May 24 at Mount Carmel High School.

The Warriors accumulated 46 points, an amount which was equaled by Rancho Bernardo High School and exceeded in Division I only by Steele Canyon High School. The finish was the highest for the Warrior boys since they won the CIF championship in 1989. The meet also saw three Warriors qualify for the state meet.

“Tying for second in the county in Division I is an amazing feat,” said boys head coach Rich Parris. “You knew they could and you were really hoping, but sometimes things just turn out really well for us. We were very lucky.”

“This is a huge honor for us,” Parris said. “It really is a testament of the boys to step it up.”

“It was a tremendous, tremendous day, and we couldn’t be more happy with the way the section finals went and how the kids did,” said Troy Hamlin, who is Fallbrook’s head girls coach and also coaches sprinters, hurdlers, and jumpers for both the boys and girls.

The state meet will take place at Cerritos College. The preliminaries will be held May 30 and the finals will be conducted May 31.

Fallbrook junior Marquis Sumpter qualified for the state meet in two events while breaking 22-year-old school records in both. His time of 21.63 seconds in the 200-meter dash placed third both in Division I and in the combined group, trailing only Jamal Alston of Rancho Buena Vista and Joe Cooks of Mission Hills. “He actually moved nicely in the last 50 meters,” Hamlin said. “He just didn’t get out the same way Jamal does or Joe does.”

Sumpter’s time of 48.30 seconds in the 400-meter run placed third overall, behind the 47.31-second winning time of Lincoln’s Nico Reaves and the 48.16-second performance of Ramona sophomore Ryan Morgan. Since Ramona is a Division II school, Sumpter’s time was the second-fastest among Division I runners in that event.

“He just poured it on in the last hundred meters,” Hamlin said.

“We were really happy. He really likes to run the sprints, the short sprints,” Parris said.

Sumpter began the season running the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, but Parris and Hamlin felt that Sumpter’s strength was in the longer sprints. Sumpter first ran the 400-meter event April 12 at the Jaguar Invitational and won the meet with a time of 51.35 seconds.

“He’s just really coming into his own,” Parris said. “He’s got so much more potential.”

Sumpter’s time of 49.03 seconds at the league meet May 8 won that race. The triple-digit temperatures at the CIF preliminaries May 17 led to a time of 49.39 seconds which placed third overall, although he won his heat.

“This is the first time he’s really been challenged,” Parris said.

The May 24 temperature in the 60s allowed for a better time. “It’s clearly his best event,” Hamlin said. “He approaches it with the right mental approach.”

In 1986 Fallbrook’s Mike Robinson ran the 200-meter dash in 21.7 seconds and the 400-meter race in 48.1 seconds. The hand-timed figures stood as school records until Sumpter’s performance in the CIF finals. The conversion from hand-held to electronic timing adds 0.24 seconds to a time, so Sumpter’s time of 48.30 seconds in the 400-meter run is considered faster than Robinson’s hand-held time. Sumpter’s time in the 200-meter dash beat Robinson’s raw mark as well as the conversion figure.

“He does stand as a positive example not just for our program but for our school,” Parris said of Sumpter.

Parris was one of Robinson’s teammates in 1986. “It takes day in and day out regimentation. It takes a lot of sacrifice,” Parris said of breaking a school record.

Warrior senior Bret Hasvold will close out his Fallbrook High School career at the state meet after placing second, and first in Division I, in the 800-meter run. Charles Jock of Mission Bay High School won the race in 1:54.75 while Hasvold followed with personal record time of 1:56.03. Fallbrook senior Todd Van Duzer’s time of 1:56.97 was worth fifth place overall and fourth among Division I runners.

Hasvold was one position away from qualifying for the state meet in the 1,600-meter run. Mac Fleet of University City won the race in 4:12.81, Collin Jarvis of Rancho Buena Vista was the top Division I runner at 4:14.74, and Kenneth Raedel of San Pasqual earned the final state berth with a time of 4:14.97. Hasvold finished the race in 4:15.17 to take fourth overall and third among Division I competitors.

“He just really had a great race in the 1,600,” Hamlin said.

Hasvold and Raedel exchanged third place several times during the final lap. “It came down to a sprint, just a flat-out sprint,” Hamlin said. “Raedel just didn’t quit and just leaned him at the tape.”

Hasvold’s time was faster than the 4:15.84 at the 2007 CIF finals which earned him a trip to the state meet. His personal record of 4:13.92 was obtained in the 2007 Avocado League meet.

Fallbrook junior Uriel Aguirre won the “B” heat and finished seventh overall with a time of 4:24.71. The win in a CIF race, albeit the “B” heat, is considered a boost for the future of the boys program since Aguirre will likely become a team leader next year.

Sprinters Nick Hayes and T.J. Sumpter will join Hasvold and Van Duzer among the 2008 Fallbrook High School graduates, while sprinter Dwayne Mitchell will be moving. “We’re going to be rebuilding,” Hamlin said.

Fallbrook’s 2008 seniors also include discus thrower Ray Lian, who qualified for the state meet with a throw of 163’5”. “The thing that I really liked about Ray was the consistency of his throwing,” Hamlin said. “They were all within decent range.”

Lian placed third both overall and second in Division I. David Spates of Monte Vista won the meet with a throw of 182’10” and Julian Allotta of Rancho Bernardo had a throw of 169’1”.

Fallbrook’s 4x100 boys relay team was disqualified for dropping the baton, but the Warrior 4x400 boys relay team of Hasvold, Hayes, T.J. Sumpter, and Marquis Sumpter had a time of 3:26.89 to place eighth overall and fifth in Division I. Because the 4x400 relay closes out the track portion of a meet, Fallbrook’s finish one position ahead of Rancho Bernardo allowed the Warriors to tie the Broncos for second place at the meet.

The Fallbrook girls obtained two total points to share 23rd place in Division I with Sweetwater. Kristin Parry’s personal record of 11:00.12 in the 3,200-meter run gave the freshman fifth place both overall and in Division I while freshman Amanda Mulkey’s 800-meter time of 2:20.36 was seventh in Division I and eighth overall.

Hamlin and Parris are both in their first season as head coaches. “It’s been a very interesting year,” Hamlin said. “The transition’s been really, really difficult, but everything came together.”