Jim Riggio
Never has a boy and a girl from the area won a state track and
field title in the same year.
But that could all change this year, especially after the performances
put forth by Hoover High junior Anita Siraki and Verdugo Hills High
senior Shane Hackett Saturday in the Flo-Jo Memorial Arcadia Invitational
at Citrus College.
Siraki and Hackett were already among the nation's best going into the
meet, but when they were done, they left with performances that rank
among the best ever in California.
If there is any question left to answer for Siraki and Hackett, it is
"Can you do any better?"
Improvements at this point would seem hard to make, but it is not out
of the question for Siraki to cut a few more seconds or for Hackett to
jump a few inches higher than the 16 feet 4-inch bar he cleared.
For Siraki, her 10 minute 18.61 second clocking in the girls' 3,200
meters is the best in the nation this year. The mark makes her the 33rd
best all-time outdoor performer in U.S. history.
The performance is certainly among Siraki's top three in her career,
next to her 16:58 clocking at Mount San Antonio College to win the CIF
Division I cross-country title and her fourth-place finish in the
national cross-country finals, where she ran 17:23 for five kilometers.
After coming back to run her second 1,600 in 5:02, following a 5:16
the first 1,600, it appears she is capable of running faster.
It also looks that Siraki's approach going into the Arcadia meet was
perfect. She ran just the mile relay in Hoover's dual-meet win over
Pasadena High on Thursday.
Hoover Coach Greg Switzer had a detailed outline of how Siraki ran
10:18.61.
Broken down into splits of every 200 and 400 meters, Switzer had
Siraki running 3:43.7 on her fifth through seventh lap of the eight-lap
race, a pace that is under 10 minutes in the 3,200. Siraki ran just
3:54.3 on her first three laps.
National record holder Kim Mortensen, who ran for Thousand Oaks High
in 1996, is the only runner to go under 10 minutes outdoors in the 3,200.
"The goal is to be even the whole way through," Switzer said. "But to
do that you have to have the sense that you're holding back in that first
mile."
Switzer said all Siraki needs to do is to convince herself that she
can go a little faster in the first 1,600, but at the same time not too
much faster.
"You have to have the mental feeling of holding back," Switzer said.
"You want to control yourself the first mile."
Siraki said she knows she could have paced herself better, but is
