Ben Hartinger

School: San Pasqual

Sport: Track

Born: 1995 in Poway

Year: Senior

Nickname: Big Ben

Accomplishments: Second-team All-Avocado East League in 2012.

Who would you put on speed dial: Usher, mother (Cara), father (Doug), brother (Sam)

Favorite pizza: Pepperoni

Sport you would never watch: Baseball

If you could have a last meal: Skittles and bread

Dream vacation: Bahamas

What three things would you want on a deserted island: Food, knife, matches

Talent you’d love to have: Singing

What track would you love to run on: Mt. Carmel High

Best moment in athletic career: Recording a PR (14.74 seconds) in the CIF finals last year in 110 high hurdles

What do you want to be when you grow up: Engineer

Favorite class: Mathematics

Your ideal car or truck: Prius

Favorite athlete: LaDainian Tomlinson

What TV show do you hate to miss: “So You Think You Can Dance”

Favorite reality TV show: “Big Brother”

Favorite cartoon as a youngster: “Blue’s Clues”

Biggest pet peeve: People who eat with their mouth open

Biggest fear: Roller coasters

Superstitions: Have to wrap laces around shoes one time

For the longest time, soccer was the focal point of Ben Hartinger’s athletic life.

He played it for nearly eight years before entering San Pasqual High.

There was some time spent playing rugby and swimming with the Escondido Swim Club.

When he became an Eagle, though, something changed. He gave football and basketball a try despite basketball season coinciding with soccer.

It was while watching Olympic track on television that Hartinger, now 6-feet-4, witnessed elite athletes running the hurdles.

That one stint became the foundation for his athletic life.

Q: What did you see that day that drew you to track?

A: Running the hurdles looked like fun and I was looking for something different to do anyway.

Q: By the time you got to San Pasqual, had you even tried running a hurdle race?

A: No. There are some knee-high bushes between my house and my neighbor, so both of us started jumping over them all the time using what we thought was good hurdle technique.

Q: Was your technique good?

A: Nope. It was way off. The coaches here taught me how to jump hurdles the right way.

Q: What do those bushes look like today?

A: About like you’d expect. They were a mess by the time I started at San Pasqual. We live in the same house, but I haven’t jumped those bushes in a long time.

Q: Between the 300-meter intermediate hurdles and the 110 high hurdles, which is your favorite?

A: The 110 highs. I get nervous for the 300s and the 1,600 relay race that I also run. Those races are too long for me.

Q: How did you get into those other events?

A: My brother (Sam) did the triple jump and my uncle (Mark Hartinger) is the jumps coach at San Pasqual. I had to do that one. And they said they needed me in the relay. I’ve never done the 100 or 200. It would seem strange to run those distances without jumping a few times along the way.

Q: No other sport ever caught your eye?

A: I got into taekwondo for a while.

Q: How long were you in taekwondo?

A: Long enough (seven years) to win a black belt.

Q: Do your friends know you’re a black belt?

A: They don’t know I’m a dangerous guy yet. And there hasn’t been an occasion to use it on them, yet.

Q: What do you do when you want to relax?

A: I love puzzles. The ones over 1,000 pieces are my favorite. I’ve done a couple of 1,500-piece puzzles. Those bigger ones take a couple of days to finish. Mom usually helps me with those.

Q: When you finish one of those puzzles, how do you feel when that last piece is in?

A: It feels great to finish one of those, but a couple of times there have been pieces missing and that drives me crazy until I find that piece. Maybe it’s under the box or under the sofa. I’ll put the finished one away and whip out another one. The more you do it, the better you get. When I’m doing a puzzle, I’m all in. Don’t bother me. I don’t notice things around me.

Q: Why do you keep doing those big puzzles?

A: It’s an escape from school and everything else.

Q: Once you come back from spring break, how much time is left in senior year?

A: Not much at all. This year has gone by so fast. When I was a freshman, I thought being here for four years would take forever. Freshman and sophomore years seemed so long. Junior year was a little better, but senior year has flown by. It seems like we started school about two weeks ago.