Perry Is on a High After Low Hurdles

LONG BEACH — It’s not often that two of the top 10 competitors in the nation find themselves in the same qualifying heat of the Southern Section Division I track and field preliminaries.

It is even more rare when the individuals race each other as if the state title were at stake rather than two of nine spots in the following week’s championships.

Yet that’s what happened at Veterans Stadium on Saturday when seniors Michelle Perry of Quartz Hill High and Hannah Cooper of Hawthorne hooked up in a heat of the girls’ 300-meter low hurdles.

Cooper was the sixth-fastest returning 300 hurdler in the nation this season with a best of 42.2 seconds and Perry was No. 7 after running 42.68 to finish third in last year’s state championships.

They battled in the homestretch Saturday before Perry dipped across the finish line ahead of Cooper to record a 42.41 to 42.42 victory.

“For some reason she and I always seem to get in the same qualifying heat,” said the UCLA-bound Perry. “But I like the competition. It’s nice to have someone in the race who can push you the whole way.”

Perry’s time surpassed her season-best 43.37 set in last month’s Arcadia Invitational and moved her within striking distance of the region record of 42.25 set by Audrey Williams of Saugus in 1981.

Yet she said there is room for improvement.

“I don’t know what I was doing on the curve,” Perry said of her ragged form over the fifth and sixth of eight hurdles. “I’m definitely going to hear about that.”

Fatigue might have played a factor in Perry’s technical breakdown because she was competing in her fourth event.

She won heats of the 100 and 100 high hurdles and finished second in long jump qualifying earlier in the day.

Perry, the defending Division I champion in the 100 highs and 300 lows, posted the second-fastest qualifying time in the highs at 14.88 and the third-fastest mark in the 100 at 12.12.

“My main goal will be to win [the hurdles],” Perry said of the Division I championships next Saturday. “I’ll go for times in the [Southern Section] Masters Meet.”

Highland senior Andrea Neipp clocked 10:35.02 and Canyon sophomore Lauren Fleshman ran 11:06.86 in their heats of the girls’ 3,200, and Simi Valley junior Ryan Meuse clocked 1:54.9 to win his heat of the boys’ 800.

Sophomores Amanda Armstrong of Thousand Oaks and Jameka Taylor of Littlerock, and seniors Kenya Corley of Quartz Hill and Markus Carr of Palmdale advanced to the Division I championships in two events.

Armstrong clocked career-bests of 5:11.15 to finish second in the 1,600 and 2:19.50 to run fourth in the 800.

Taylor was the third qualifier in the girls’ triple jump at 36 feet 11 1/2 inches and she grabbed the ninth--and final--spot in the long jump at 17-9.

Corley, defending Division I champion in the girls’ long jump, was third at 18-7 1/2, and was one of eight qualifiers to clear 5-2 in the high jump.

Carr bounded a career-best of 46-3 1/2 for second in the boys’ triple jump and was eighth in the long jump at 21 feet.