Eagles runner surprised by victory in 800

By: JOHN MAFFEI - Staff Writer | Friday, April 30, 2004 11:58 PM PDT ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- Jesse O'Brien had one goal as he lined up for the invitational 800 meters at the 39th Orange Glen Invitational.

"I didn't want to finish last," the San Pasqual High sophomore said.

O'Brien finished at the opposite end of the field, blazing to a 1:54.58, the fastest time by a San Diego County runner in this event in three years.

The time represented a near two-second drop from his previous best.

"I don't know how to explain it," O'Brien said. "I didn't expect to do this well.

"I knew the guys in the race, I knew the competition would be good, and I guess it pushed me to be the best I could be.

"This time lets people know I can run."

O'Brien ran the first 400 meters in 58 seconds, then "I took off," he said.

"My strength is my kick, speed at the end," he said.

O'Brien was named the track athlete of the meet.

Fallbrook's Mike Mateljan won the 110 high hurdles in 14.90, just off his season best of 14.83.

"We had three meets this week, so I'm happy with this time," Mateljan said.

"I'd like to be in the mid-to-low 14s by the end of the season, and that push starts with this meet."

After a slow start, Mateljan said he made his move over the fifth hurdle.

"My goal is to win the Avocado League title, then take aim at CIF," Mateljan said. "To do that, I need to even out my race a little, but I can do that."

Escondido pole vaulter Jon Hori took aim at the leaders in the pole vault and won the event, clearing a meet-record 15-7 on his last attempt. He missed three attempts at 16-1. The old mark was 15-6 set by Pat Alduenda of Ramona in 1987.

"I didn't want to leave anything behind on that last vault," Hori said.

Surprisingly, Rancho Bernardo's Matt Steverson, the section leader at 15-9, didn't clear a height Friday.

"I expected him to stay in with both of us going for the record," Hori said. "This is my first invitational with him, so I was a little disappointed. But this is a crazy event. You have to have a couple of screws loose to bend a pole and go high. Actually, in the pole vault, you don't compete against another person. You compete against the bar. And you can never win."

Hori set a school record in the pole vault on Wednesday in a dual meet against Orange Glen, clearing 15-9. The old mark was 15-8, set by Ryan McClain in last year's state meet when he finished second.

"I hoping to clear 16-6, maybe 17 feet by the end of the season," Hori said. "I have a couple of more inches on my pole, and I need to fix my run."

Hori's mark was one of three meet records.

The others went to Bishop's Daniel Schaerer, who threw the discus 197-10, breaking the record set by Danny Ames (190-8) of El Capitan in 1998. He was named field athlete of the meet.

And Desi Burt of Serra set a meet record by clearing 6-8 in the high jump, wiping the mark of 6-7 3/4 of Escondido's Eric Hollins in 1998 off the books.

Contact staff writer John Maffei at (760) 740-3547 or at jmaffei@nctimes.com.