By Rich Gonzalez
Editor, ESPN RISE/DyeStatCal
        (FRESNO, Ca.) -- Taken from the California Indoor recap article

While Scarvelis aims to make a big statement late in the season, it was hard not to notice that Alex Donigian is ready to make one now.
        The previously unheralded Trabuco Hills High sprinter caught the entire arena off guard with a stellar pair of clockings in the 55-meter dash. During the prelims, Donigian ripped off a 6.51, which was fastest among the 20 prelims heats. In the final, he further validated the performance with a 6.43 clocking to defeat the likes of Kennedy's Breonntae Snelling, Long Beach Poly's  Kameron White and Oaks Christian's Vinnie Saucier.
        Depending upon the caliber of a sprinter's sheer power (more important in a 60-meter meter dash than a 100m dash) and their success with blocks starts amid a shorter race with less time margin for error, the 60m-to-100m time difference among leading dashers can be as little as 4.1 seconds, but more typically is closer to 4.3 seconds.
        Donigian's 6.43 would likely translate to somewhere in the mid- to high-10.70s rage at this point for 100 meters.
        Not bad for someone who has never had a wind legal outdoor race under 11 seconds and said he owned a personal best wind-aided 10.97 from last year.
        But defeating a cache of sub-10.90 sprinters  was clear indication his time was no fluke and he -- somewhat surprisingly -- now projects as Orange County's fastest high schooler for outdoors.
        Apparently a largely uneventful career until now, where did he come from? Apparently, from the weight room and the kitchen.
        "I started lifting, taking protein powder and started to get serious about my sprinting," said the easy-going teen.
        "Last year, it was, 'I don't want to practice' and 'I don't want to lift weights,' " said Donigian
(pronounced dawn-knee-GEE-yen). "Now, I want to put in the extra work to be my best."
       Under the tutelage of Mustangs sprint coach Jacob Griswold, Donigian has set the bar high in terms of goals this spring: taking down the school's 100-meter dash record. And that would be held by Matt Bruno, the Orange County record holder at 10.48.
       Donigian is not your typical sprinter, not carrying wide shoulder and oodles of muscle mass. Instead, the lanky teen relies on long levers, nag a long and quick stride pattern.
       Clearly preferring to keep things simple and wanting to focus in the 100m outdoors ("I like Point A to Point B, not 'You have to stay off the lane line on the curve in the 200, or not to get out too fast, or too slow, or pace myself in the longer races. Just straight line from Point A to Point B"), Donigian kids that his focus is better this year too.
       "Girls, friends, and other things would distract me easily," he quipped. "Not anymore. I don't let girls and friends stress me. Track is my new love."