By Dick Sparrer
Joe Naivalu missed a few of the Los Gatos All-Comers track and field meets this summer.
But he had a pretty good excuse--he was in Atlanta, competing in the Olympic Games.
Naivalu, the two-time state hurdles champ from Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, represented Fiji in the 1996 Summer Games. But he still found time for a little competition on the track at Los Gatos High.
Naivalu, who had won the hurdles on the same Gatos track in the CCS Top-8 meet during the high school season, ran 14.5 in the 110-meter high hurdles and 10.88 in the 100-meter dash during the summer campaign in the All-Comers series.
But Naivalu's efforts were just among the many outstanding performances recorded during the 18th year of the popular All-Comers series.
Olympians Naivalu and Patty Sue Plummer topped the field this summer. Naivalu, a CCS champion in the 110 highs and the 300 intermediate hurdles, represented Fiji at the Olympics, then was back on the track at Gatos for All-Comers action.
Naivalu ran head-to-head with Marty Krulee in the men's open division 100-meters in All-Comers action over the summer. Krulee's 10.82 topped Naivalu's best of 10.88.
Krulee, the spring coach at West Valley College in Saratoga, also recorded an All-Comers best of 22.58 in the 200 meters. Another West Valley coach, Dan Besmer, topped the pole vault bar at 17-0.
Scott Slover, the state high school pole vault champion at Leland a couple of years back, soared 17-6 in the vault and former Leigh and West Valley jumper Darren Garcia flew 6-6 in the high jump.
Two-time Dammit Run champion Kendrick Sealy notched a quick 2.00.4 800 meters and Dan Gruber ran a 9:37 2-mile.
Kevin Mourning set new masters division records in his age group in the 60 (6.37), the 100 (10.92) and the 200 (22.50).
Lynbrook track and cross country coach Hank Lawson came through with a solid 4:29.9 in the masters 1,500 meters.
Plummer, fifth in the women's 5,000 meters in the 1992 Olympic Games, recorded impressive marks in women's competition in the All-Comers summer series.
Plummer stopped the watch at 58.9 in the 400, 2:02.2 in the 800, 4:17.9 in the 1500 and 5:00.7 in the mile at Los Gatos this summer.
In high school action, Curtis Napolean, the CCS 400-meter champion from Del Mar, breezed to a 49.5 in his specialty in the summer series.
Eric Hu went 20-8 1/2 in the long jump and Glen Stone soared 19-4 3/8.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, September 4, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved