A Windy Ride : Maddette Smith Is Breezing Toward the State Meet in Blustery Quartz Hill

QUARTZ HILL —  On this particular day, Maddette Smith was given a break from the wind, the sun and--most importantly--the dirt.

It was an uneasy day. The Southern Section track championships--and her three events--were 24 hours away. So during practice, the nation’s leading schoolgirl long jumper just sat, a bit fidgety, in her coach’s classroom and considered the 800 meters.

“I was going to run the 800 at the meet against Antelope Valley,” the Quartz Hill High junior said. “Then I thought ‘Oh, boy,’ and backed down. I said ‘ two laps around the track? No way.’

“Somebody told me to run the first lap hard. But I said if you run the first lap hard, you can’t run the second one. That last turn--going up the hill--would be murder. I like to run at one time . . . a sudden burst.”

A sudden burst. Not a bad description for a girl who didn’t care much for the long jump in the first place.

It’s not that Smith doesn’t enjoy winning, it is the core of her motivation. Ask Smith what she likes about track, and she will be polite about saying, “Winning.”

For Smith, seemingly, it isn’t so much what she’s doing, but how well she’s doing it.

Quartz Hill Coach Don Crimin has no doubts about Smith and the 800 meters. “A little time, a little more work, she could do it. And win,” he said.

Take the long jump, her specialty. She’s been doing it for a little more than a year. Her best is the nation’s best this year--a legal 20 feet 6 inches and a wind-aided 21-3.

Smith moved from Miami at the beginning of her sophomore year, and began long jumping in March 1985. Still with a year left in high school, the national record of 22-3 is within reach.

“If you want to know the truth,” I really didn’t like the long jump when I first started,” Smith said. “I’d never tried that before in my life. I thought it was awkward, you know? Why would you do that, run, then jump?

“But I got used to it. I just never thought about it before. I mean I thought it was neat people jump, but I was a sprinter.”

So what exactly makes the long jump better now? “I don’t know,” she said. “What do I like about the long jump? I don’t like the dirt, that’s for sure.”

Fortunately for Smith, the dirt or sand in the pit only comes into play on landing. It is that burst before she jumps which accounts for where she lands.

“The first day I saw her, when she came to practice, I told (another) coach that she was going to the state meet,” Crimin said. “And she did.”

In the Southern Section championships Saturday at Cerritos College, Smith won the 3-A division long jump on her first attempt of 19-5.

Then in the 400 meters, she finished a close second to Pomona’s Janeene Vickers. Later, in the 200, she eclipsed the divisional record of 24.05 with a 23.87. In last year’s Southern Section meet, she won the 200 and finished second in the 400 and long jump.

In Friday’s Masters meet at Cerritos, she will defend her title in the long jump and try to qualify for the State in the 200, as well. The top five finishers in each event advance to the meet next weekend at Cerritos.

She is tapering in both events for that meet, where she will go for the State record in the long jump, Smith says confidently. “I’m not sure what the State (record) is, but I’ll go for it.” The record, set by Thousand Oaks’ Marlene Harmon in 1980, is 20-8 3/4.

The most-heard question about Smith is also the easiest to answer for Crimin.

“Every coach I see asks me the same thing--’does she triple jump?’ ” Crimin said. “I say ‘no,’ and they say ‘Thank God.’

“I just told her that she’s got so much potential as a sprinter. I’ve seen too many high school kids torn up by the triple jump. I just decided I didn’t want to tear up her hips, knees and ankles.

“If she wants to try it in college, I think she could probably pick it up in a couple of weeks to where she could score in about any college meet.”

Crimin’s influence on Smith is strong. He introduced her to the long jump, and she takes his word on the woes of the triple jump. “I’ve never tried it,” Smith said. “Maybe I’ll try it, see how it is when I’m in college. Maybe. That’s about it.”

The winds of the Antelope Valley can do funny things to the long jump, turning a 17-foot jump into a 20-footer or vice-versa. But this adversity works in Smith’s favor.

On the wind, Smith said: “Oh, boy, it’s ridiculous out here sometimes.

“It’s blowing in your face, then it dies down, and then you go too fast, and then I scratch. Or it picks up as you run, and you jump early. But it helps you for the next meet.”

So with the elements obviously out, Smith still cannot put to words the appeal she finds in the long jump. “I really don’t know,” she said again.

But when it was suggested that she likes the long jump simply because she does it so well, Smith smiled, satisfied, and said “Yeah. I guess that’s it.”