Pearson Seeks Repeat of Her Soaring Effort

NORWALK —  Winning isn’t everything.

Just ask Bridget Pearson of Hoover High.

The 1997 state champion in the girls’ pole vault has been the Division I runner-up in the last three Southern Section championships, but winning her first title won’t be her top goal in today’s meet at Cerritos College. Field events start at 11 a.m. and running events at 1 p.m.

“I’m not going there saying I have to win,” Pearson said. “I’m going there to jump high.”

Pearson, who has signed with UCLA, cleared a career-best 12-2 1/2 in the Division I preliminaries at Long Beach City College last Saturday after a lower-back injury limited her to a seventh-place finish in the state championships last year.

Pearson’s previous best was 12 feet set in 1997. She broke the Division I meet record of 12-1 1/2 set by Heather Sickler of Camarillo in 1997.

The record jump was surprising because it came in the preliminaries, where competitors usually jump high enough to qualify for the section championships and then call it a day.

Those were Pearson’s intentions entering the meet, but when officials gave her and the three other competitors who had cleared 10-4 a chance to break Sickler’s record, she figured what the heck.

She missed her first attempt at 12-2 1/2, calling it a test jump to check her approach. But she cleared the bar on her second attempt before missing three times at 12-4 1/2.

“My biggest concern [at 12-2 1/2] was, ‘Am I going to make a fool of myself?’ ” Pearson said. “I wasn’t expecting to clear it, but I knew I should attempt it, so I was pretty relaxed.”

The record jump has boosted Pearson’s chances of winning a Division I title after finishing second to Alexa Harz of Peninsula in 1996, to Sickler in 1997 and to Caroline Rebello of Marina last year.

While Pearson will be shooting for one title in today’s meet, seniors Lauren Fleshman of Canyon and Becky Rauth of Harvard-Westlake, junior Josh Spiker of Ventura and sophomores Anita Siraki of Hoover, Porchea Carroll of Rio Mesa and Sierra Hauser-Price of Notre Dame could be multiple winners.

The Stanford-bound Fleshman, the national leader this year in the girls’ 3,200 meters at 10:21.36, will attempt to pull off an unprecedented 800-1,600-3,200 triple in the Division II meet.

Rauth, who’ll attend Yale in the fall, is favored to win Division III titles in the girls’ 100 high hurdles and 300 lows.

Spiker, the state leader in the boys’ 1,600 at 4:12.19 and in the 3,200 at 9:08.48, is favored to win Division II titles in those races.

Siraki is favored to win Division I girls’ titles in the 1,600 and 3,200, as Fleshman did last year.

Carroll, who won Division II titles in the girls’ 100 and 200 last year, had the top qualifying marks in the Division I 100 and long jump last week and was the No. 4 qualifier in the 200.

Hauser-Price, a state finalist in the girls’ 100 and 200 last year, will battle sophomore Shakhan Lewis of Duarte for Division III titles in those events.