National Champion Vaulter Signs with Titans APR. 16, 2002– Fullerton, Calif.
Giovanni Lanaro, the 2001 national community college pole vault champion,
headlines a list of six track and field athletes who have signed national
letters of intent to continue their athletic careers at Cal State Fullerton.
Lanaro was the No. 1 sophomore at any collegiate level in 2001 for Mt.
San Antonio College in Walnut. The 2000 California state champion, Lanaro
has a career best mark of 17 feet 8 1/2 inches, which broke Bob Seagren's
school record established in 1963. He is competing unattached this season
and will jump this weekend at the Mt. Sac Relays. The West Covina High
School product, who cleared only 11 feet 6 inches in high school before
turning to swimming, chose Fullerton in part because of its highly regarded
kinesiology education program.
Other Titan signees are distance runner Maria Blazquez of Roosevelt High
School in Los Angeles; intermediate hurdler Destany Cearley from Fall
River High School and McArthur, CA; sprinter and long jumper Christopher
Coffey of San Francisco City College and South San Francisco; middle distance
runner Christopher Covert of Antelope Valley College and Lancaster, CA;
and sprinter Courtney Shires of Bret Harte High School and Arnold, CA.
Covert is the son of Mark Covert, the 1970 NCAA College Division individual
cross country champion for Cal State Fullerton and a member of the Titans'
1971 national championship team.
Lanaro's best mark is the equal of any NCAA performer during the 2002
season and is better than the NCAA championships provisional qualifying
mark of 17 feet 2 3/4 inches. The Cal State Fullerton school record is
16 feet 4 3/4 inches set last year by Dan Churchill.
