Brian Sumpter – Record-Bee sports editor
BERKELEY ? Lower Lake High School”s Mike Perez did the heavy lifting for the better part of three laps in the four-lap 1,600-meter finals on Saturday during the Meet of Champions at U.C. Berkeley”s Edwards Stadium.
“He passed me right before the end of the third lap,” Perez said of Newark Memorial”s Jonathan Sees, the only runner who stayed up with the Lower Lake senior after he broke from the pack early in the race, which he went on to win in 4 minutes, 15.13 seconds.
Next up for Perez is the CIF State Championships Friday and Saturday at Cerritos College in Norwalk. If he advances past the time trials on Friday, he”ll compete in the finals late Saturday afternoon.
“He went to the lead right away,” Lower Lake coach Bob Galloway said of Perez”s race strategy at Berkeley. “He wanted to separate himself from the pack.”
Sees also figured that some separation was in order and as Perez and Sees broke free, the remaining six runners fell farther and farther behind the leaders.
“The kid from Newark Memorial ran right on his shoulder ? he let Mike do all the work,” Galloway explained. “When you”re out in front you do a lot more work than the kid in back.”
“He could hear the other kid breathing right behind him ? and it was labored,” Galloway added.
Sees” push to the lead at the 1,200-meter mark wasn”t a big cause for concern, according to Perez, who said there was no temptation to panic.
“I could tell he was tired,” Perez said. “His breathing was loud and his footsteps were loud. I was OK with it because I knew I could catch him.”
And that”s what happened with about 300 meters to go. With the rest of the pack a good 30-40 meters behind Perez, the Lower Lake athlete went into his kick.
“He owns the last 200 to 300 meters,” Galloway said of Perez. “Call it adrenaline or the will to win, Mike just went right by the kid. It was no problem.”
Sees tried to stay close but couldn”t and ended up second in 4:16.32.
Perez”s victory was all the more amazing because he wasn”t 100 percent healthy and hasn”t been so for a number of weeks. Though he”s been medically checked out and treated ? he”s already taken a round of antibiotics to combat the bug he”s been fighting ? he”s still not where he wants to be, though he”s getting closer.
“He was a little better (on Saturday) than he was on Friday (during qualifying),” Galloway said. “But he was absolutely exhausted when it was time to run the 800.”
“I”m feeling better,” said Perez, who was headed to Santa Rosa on Monday on a shopping trip.
With just 45 minutes to rest between the end of the 1,600 and the start of the 800 at the Meet of Champions, Perez, the only 1,600 competitor entered in the 800, said he didn”t have “a lot left” by the time his second race of the day rolled around.
“Like nothing left,” Perez said. “My strategy was to get out and hang behind the leaders until about the last 300 meters,” he said. “But I didn”t get out the way I wanted and I wasn”t able to catch them.”
Running last in the eight-man field part of the way, Perez did manage a modest kick near the end of the race to move up to sixth place. He finished at 1:58.13, nearly six seconds behind his season-best time. Clinton Hayes of Deer Valley High School won the race in 1:53.46, followed by Monte Vista”s Chris Simpson in second (1:54.41) and Healdsburg”s Tim Murphy (1:55.43) in third. Murphy edged out Perez for first place a week earlier at the North Coast Section 2A Meet in Novato.
With only one race to concentrate on at the state finals, Perez already has his strategy mapped out.
“In the preliminaries I”ll run to where I qualify and won”t be trying to do anything special,” Perez said.
And in the finals?
“I”ll let the other guys do all the work and just hang back and wait for my moment,” he said.
Perez and Galloway will depart midday Thursday and fly from Sacramento to LAX, which is about 20 miles from Norwalk. They”ll spend Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights in Norwalk before returning home Sunday.
Based on his time at the Meet of Champions, Perez is the seventh seed in the elite state field, though his winning time at Berkeley is six seconds slower than his season best.
Time trials on Friday are 5:24 p.m. (first heat) and 5:31 p.m. (second heat). The finals on Saturday begin at 4:19 p.m.
