Hasvold, Lian end high school careers with personal records at state meet

Fallbrook High School seniors Bret Hasvold and Ray Lian ended their high school track and field careers at the state meet and with personal records.

Hasvold had a time of 1:55.20 in the 800-meter run May 30 at Cerritos College while Lian threw the discus 170 feet 10 inches.

“They performed well. My hat goes off to them for what they did,” said Fallbrook boys head coach Rich Parris.

The state meet also saw Fallbrook High School junior Marquis Sumpter compete in the 200-meter dash and the 400-meter run. The May 30 preliminaries included three heats in each running race.

The top two finishers in each heat along with the runners with the next three fastest times advanced to the finals the following day.

Hasvold tied Vijay Tidwell of the San Joaquin Section’s Rodriguez High School for the tenth-fastest time, although because of the automatic entries for the top two finishers in each heat Hasvold was officially twelfth.

The three “at-large” entries into the finals all came from Hasvold’s heat. “I haven’t seen a faster heat in eight years of coaching high school track,” Parris said.

Hasvold was sixth in his heat. “Bret was right in there the whole time,” Parris said. “He never backed down from those guys.”

At the CIF San Diego Section finals May 24 Hasvold set his previous personal record in the 800-meter run, finishing first among Division I runners and second overall with a time of 1:56.03.

The runner who was first overall at the section finals, Charles Jock of Mission Bay High School, also won the state meet and was in Hasvold’s preliminary heat.

Lian’s throw placed 11th in the preliminaries, two positions away from a berth in the state finals. The distance was also the longest for any of the three discus throwers from the San Diego Section who had advanced to the state finals.

Lian had qualified for the state meet with a throw of 163’5” in the section finals. He won the Avocado League meet May 8 with a throw of 167’7”.

Although the state finals concluded the high school careers of Hasvold and Lian, both plan to compete at the college level. Hasvold has signed a letter of intent to run track and cross-country at Long Beach State and Lian will begin his college athletic career at Saddleback Community College with the hopes of receiving a scholarship to a four-year university.

The disappointment of not making the finals was mitigated by the personal records. “They realized what they accomplished over the weekend and what good things they did to get here,” Parris said.

In his first-ever state meet Sumpter had a time of 22.02 seconds in the 200-meter run and 50.87 seconds in the 400-meter run. “It was really good to see him get out there and get some experience,” Parris said.

That experience may help Sumpter during next year’s section season as well as at the 2009 state meet. “He’s going to be a great leader for us next year,” Parris said.

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