Sutton’s Best Race Rates a 4th in Sunkist

Melissa Sutton of Newbury Park High, one of best distance runners in the state among prep girls, ran the fastest mile of her life Friday night in the Sunkist Invitational meet at the Sports Arena.

She was thrilled. She was elated. She was bubbling with happiness.

And she was fourth.

Such was the level of the prep competition at the 27th Sunkist meet, which attracted athletes from throughout the state.

Sutton was clocked in 5:01.3 for the girls seeded mile, closing with a surge on the final lap to move into fourth place. The winner, Darcy Arreola of La Mesa Grossmont, was clocked in a swift 4:58. Second was Tracey Williams of El Monte Mountain View and third was Laura Chapman of San Jose Gunderson, the girl who beat Sutton last month in the Western Regional of the Kinney Cross Country Championships.

“I love running indoors,” said Sutton, who has done most of her running outdoors at 5- and 10-kilometer distances. “You can just run so fast on that track. I was running so fast I didn’t know if I was going to die on the last lap or not, but I felt real strong and fast right to the end. I felt great.”

Sutton’s best previous indoor mile was 5:12 and her best outdoor mile is 5:15. Perhaps she should consider spending a bit more time in the great indoors.

Other Valley athletes also turned in fine performances, including Richard Erbes of Glendale and Daren Stonerock of Saugus, who finished third and fourth in the boys seeded two-mile, and Gary Wellman of Westlake and Rick Ervins of Pasadena Muir, who were third and fourth in the 60-yard dash for football players.

Daren Stonerock was substituting in the two-mile for his brother, Kirk Stonerock, who scratched from the race. Daren was scheduled to run in the mile. He was timed in 9:22.9 at two miles, just a tick behind Erbes (9:22.8).

Wellman and Ervins were both clocked in 6:45 in the 60-yard dash, a time that broke the existing meet record of 6:48 set by San Fernando’s Chris Richards in 1984.

Unfortunately for Wellman and Ervins, two other football sprinters also beat the old meet record, with Pomona’s J.J. Flanigan recording a sizzling 6.41 and Calvin Holmes of Carson finishing second in 6.43 seconds.

In the boys long jump, Mike Carnes of Simi Valley was the winner with a 22-6, and Simi Valley’s Mike Carpenter was fourth at 20-10 1/2.

Saugus won the boys two-mile relay in 8:13.6, more than three seconds ahead of second-place finisher Rio Mesa of Oxnard. The Saugus squad was comprised of Mike MacLean, Martin Dinsenbacher, Joe Devine and Mike Fretz.

In other events: Rodney Bradshaw of Saugus finished fourth in the boys 60-yard hurdles in 7.4 seconds; Rick Towle of Valencia and Doug Fairman of Thousand Oaks finished seventh and eighth in the boys rated mile; Lisa Rizzo of Hart finished third in the girls rated mile in 5:12.4, followed by Heather Scobie of Saugus in fourth place and Chris Morgan of Bell-Jeff in sixth; Terrence Williams of Muir was second in the boys triple jump at 48-2 1/4; Mike Holcolm of Westlake won a division of the boys 500-yard dash in 1:00.9; Stacey Leach of Thousand Oaks was third in the girls 500-yard dash in 1:10.3, and Todd Kieling of Crespi was fifth in the boys high jump at 6-4.