JSerra's Steed lets jump happen

A high jumper has plenty to think about. A high jumper is better off when thinking about nothing.

JSerra senior Harrison Steed is the Orange County record holder in the high jump, with a mark of 7 feet, 21/2 inches set earlier this season. He goes into this weekend's ultra-prestigious Acadia Invitational with a lot on his mind, which includes emptying his mind.

"When I'm high-jumping," Steed said, "if I'm thinking of all the things I need to do correctly, then my jump will turn out horribly. I'm at my best when I've cleared my mind and just let it happen."

That did not happen last week at the Trabuco Hills Invitational. Steed's best jump was 6-4. Yes, he has had better meets.

"I came out expecting to have a good day, and all the conditions for it were right," he said. "But I had a problem with my form. I was dropping my knee too early, and that created a rotation problem at the bar.

"I should have done better, but it was just not my day."

Like so many top track and field athletes, Steed sort of accidentally chose his event. He messed around with the high jump as an eighth-grader at Las Flores Middle School, and thought it might be fun to try it in high school. When he got to JSerra, he was fortunate to find that a good high-jump coach, Ron Lee, was on the staff.

Steed's development was rapid. A long-limbed 6-foot-3, he has the right body for the high jump. Steed accepted a track scholarship from Cal, over an offer from UCLA, with Cal's business school being the deal-maker for him.

He has high-jump plans beyond college — the Olympics.

"That's always in the back of my mind," he said. "It's definitely a goal to get there some day."

First up, though, is Arcadia. Good competition makes everyone better, and Steed will have plenty of it this weekend. Two others who have marks over 7 feet are entered, Dwayne Golbek of Claremore, Okla., and A.J. Maracich of Mead, Wash.

Winning is fun, sure, but that's not always Steed's goal. He wants to post good marks, first of all.

"If everything is right with my form and technique, then winning should come along with it," he said. "But I wouldn't be disappointed if I got a new PR (personal record) and didn't win."

It looks like a good weekend ahead.

"I've been training to peak for this meet," Steed said. "I've had good practices this week. I'm looking for it, I'm feeling it."

As long as he doesn't think about it, too much.

Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:

• The Arcadia Invitational starts today and concludes Saturday night at Arcadia High. Records will fall, guaranteed, and the stadium will reach its 7,200 capacity Saturday night. Tickets: $7 for adults and students with student identification, $5 for children 12 and younger for the Friday evening relays session; $15 for adults, $10 for students with student identification, and $5 for children 12 and younger.

• It might happen this weekend, or maybe later this spring in CIF competition. But the 32-year-old county record in the boys long jump, the 24-5 mark set by Santa Ana Valley's Tony Pitts in 1978, is being threatened by Dana Hills junior Devin Harrison, who has gone 24-1 this season. Harrison is entered in the long jump and the 200, and is on the Dolphins distance medley and sprint medley relay teams at Arcadia.

• Another Dana Hills track athlete poised for a big weekend at Arcadia: versatile senior Kimmie Conner. She won the 100 dash, the 100 and 300 hurdles, and finished second in the long jump in a meet at Laguna Hills two weeks ago.

• The Anaheim Lions Tournament championship baseball game had two non-county teams in it. Chaminade of West Hills beat J.W. North of Riverside, 2-0, in the final Wednesday at Glover Stadium. It was Chaminade's ninth consecutive victory.

• Chaminade and North went 5-0 in the Lions tournament, but so did some other teams; the two had gone 4-0 going into Wednesday, the final day of the tournament, and since they gave up the fewest number of runs over their first four games, with Chaminade allowing only two runs and North allowing only six, they got into the championship game. JSerra and Mission Viejo were other teams that won all five of their Lions games.

• If Capistrano Unified School District teachers do go on strike soon and a strike cancels interscholastic athletic contests, how would that affect playoff selections from the South Coast League, of which five of its six members are CUSD schools? As leagues select their playoff representatives, whichever teams the South Coast would submit as its playoff teams in a given sport would be accepted by the CIF-Southern Section as long as those teams had no playoff-eligibility issues with the section.

• Football teams can have spring practices whenever it is convenient for them. The CIF-SS sets no specific dates for spring football, now that the association rule is gone. The association rule, eliminated last year by the CIF-SS Council that is made up of representatives from CIF-SS leagues, had restricted the amount of contact allowed between coaches and athletes outside of the season of sport.

• Look for final rosters to appear in these pages and at ocvarsity.com within the next couple of weeks for the North and South teams that will play in the Brea Lions Orange County North-South All-Star Football Game, which will be played July 16 at Orange Coast College.

• Keep up with what is going on at ocvarsity.freedomblogging.com, and follow me at twitter.com/stevefryer. (I'm not one of those nuts who tweets every 20 minutes, but only when it's important.)