Perry Clears Some Personal Obstacles in the Hurdles

QUARTZ HILL —  Michelle Perry’s mind says no, but her performances say it’s so.

The junior from Quartz Hill High doesn’t consider herself a hurdler, yet in those events she is among the top performers in Southern California.

Whether she’s among the state’s best hurdlers will be determined over the next two days when she runs in the 100-meter high hurdles and the 300 lows in the State championships at Cerritos College.

Perry sped to Division I titles in both events in the Southern Section championships two weeks ago, but was adamant afterward that the sprints are still her favorite races.

Her refusal to view herself as a hard-core hurdler in part stems from her excellence in the sprints since the fourth grade. She placed fifth in the 100 and 200 in the Division I finals as a freshman.

Fear also factors into her outlook. She has always regarded the hurdles as an accident waiting to happen. Asked to run the 100 hurdles as a sophomore, she refused.

“I was scared,” Perry said. “I’d seen people really hurt themselves in that event. Plus, I’ve always considered myself a clumsy person. Running the hurdles did not seem like a good idea.”

Despite her initial reluctance, Perry placed second in the 100 highs at the Southern Section Division I championships and advanced to the Masters Meet last year.

In the Masters Meet, Perry was disqualified for a false start.

“I think that was a case of nerves and being too concerned with getting a good start,” she said. “We had practiced all week on getting out of the blocks. Everything was focused on getting out of the blocks fast so when the starter brought us to the set position, I took off instead of waiting for the gun.”

Perry’s skittishness cost her a chance to place among the top five finishers and qualify for the State championships.

“It was devastating,” she said. “I cried for a long time after that.”

Perry’s disappointment subsided over the summer, but she was leery when Quartz Hill girls’ Coach Kelly Marsh approached her about adding the 300 low hurdles to her repertoire.

The prospect of having to clear eight 30-inch hurdles over the course of a 300-meter race terrified her more than negotiating 10 33-inch barriers in the 100.

But Marsh was relentless. She figured that the 300 hurdles was the ideal event for the 5-foot-9 Perry to utilize her speed (11.96 seconds in the 100), strength and endurance.

“She just has such raw talent,” said Marsh, who placed fourth in the mile in the 1978 State championships for Quartz Hill. “And she’s very, very competitive.”

Perry’s competitiveness was evident in the Beverly Hills Invitational in March when she ran 44.0 in the 300 lows. She had run 48.7 and 47.0 in her first two 300 hurdle races, but Beverly Hills was the first meet in which she really ran aggressively.

“That was the first time that we’d ever seen her work at it,” Marsh said. “Before that, she had just done what she needed to do to win a couple of dual meets.”

Perry had high hopes of improving her time in the Arcadia Invitational on April 13, but after running a season-best 14.56 to win the seeded 100 hurdles, her fear of falling became reality. She clobbered the second hurdle in the invitational 300 lows and crashed to the track, taking out Frances Santin of Taft in the process.

Although she suffered some scrapes and bruises in the mishap, the incident took more of a mental toll on Perry than a physical one. She was tentative in practice the following week, saying she “didn’t want to do this anymore” after again crashing to the track.

Alma Perry gets so nervous when her daughter competes that she has yet to watch an entire 300 hurdles race.

When Perry lowered her career best to 44.17 to defeat Santin in a heat of the Mt. San Antonio College Relays a week after her Arcadia debacle, Alma watched Michelle clear the first hurdle, then closed her eyes and bowed her head in prayer while friend Valerie Smith told her how the race was going.

The same thing occurred in the Southern Section championships, when Perry ran 42.88 to move into a tie for fourth on the all-time region list and to fourth on the yearly state list.

“I’m just so afraid that she’s going to fall and hurt herself,” Alma said. “I make sure she gets off to a good start and then I pray.”

Those prayers might not be needed as much in the future. Perry’s hurdling technique is improving, though there are still times in races when she looks more like a first-time steeplechaser than an accomplished 300 hurdler.

“I’m not as afraid of the hurdles as I use to be,” Perry said. “I’m getting more comfortable with them.”

Quartz Hill assistant Percy Knox Sr., who is working with Perry for the first time this year, believes she can approach 41 seconds in the 300 hurdles despite some flaws in her technique.

“She still has a lot of lateral movement in her upper body when she hurdles,” Knox said. “That creates a lot of twisting at the waist, which throws off her balance. And she still doesn’t come up as high on her toes or on the balls of her feet as she should.”

Marsh predicts any deficiencies won’t last long because Perry is her own worst critic.

“She’s not easily satisfied,” Marsh said. “But you want that in an athlete. You don’t want someone who’s going to be happy with everything they do.”

Perry isn’t.

“I can be a bit of a perfectionist if it involves something I care about,” she said. “If I know there is room for improvement after a race, I’ll go back and work on it all week in practice. And if I don’t get it right the next meet, I’ll be upset.”

Perry’s work ethic shows in the classroom. She has a 3.53 grade-point average and talks of attending Stanford, although she needs to improve her score on the Scholastic Assessment Test to meet the school’s strict admission standards.

Her versatility in track and field--she has run 24.70 in the 200 and long-jumped 18 feet 6 1/4 inches--bodes well for a competitive future in the heptathlon. But for now, Perry claims she is a sprinter who is adapting well to the hurdles.

Or is she a sprinter who is unknowingly becoming a hurdler?