Bay’s Best Try for Sunkist Gold : 13 Stars and Top Relay Teams in Prestigious Meet

Thirteen South Bay athletes will compete for medals in individual events and four area high schools will be represented in relays when the 29th annual Sunkist Invitational Track Meet kicks off at the Sports Arena on Friday at 4:30 p.m.

The high-banked 160-yard board track will offer Southland athletes an unusual chance to compete indoors.

Pole-vaulters Tom Hintnaus and Steve Klassen from Manhattan Beach will battle Dave Kenworthy from Redondo Beach and four other world-class athletes, including Joe Dial, the United States 1986 and 1987 national champion who holds the nation’s vault record at 19 feet, 6 1/2 inches.

Jeff Atkinson, a former standout distance runner at Mira Costa High, will try to upend a host of record- holders in the mile race.

Competitors include American record-holder Steve Scott, 1986 Sunkist champion Dave Campbell from Canada and New Zealand’s John Walker, the first sub-3:50 miler in history.

Curtis Conway, quarterback for Hawthorne’s football team, and Marlon Singleton from Westchester will run in the boys prep 60-meter dash against four others from state schools.

In the boys football 60, Carson’s Larry Billoups will race, among others, Glyn Milburn from Santa Monica and Carlsbad Army-Navy’s Jason Simpson, son of former NFL and USC star O. J. Simpson. Hawthorne’s Travis Hannah, who combined with Conway for 10 touchdowns last season, will run with Conway in several relays. Hannah is an alternate in the football 60.

The boys seeded 2-mile has CIF-Southern Section champion Dave Scudamore and teammate Sky Piper from Palos Verdes High.

Morningside High’s Althea Moses and Lamonica Smith from Banning will challenge 13 others in the girls 880. Palos Verdes’ Ashley Black, who led the Sea Kings to Southern Section and state Division 1 titles during the cross-country season, will challenge nine others in the girls 2-mile.

With Hawthorne, Palos Verdes, San Pedro and Westchester, the South Bay will be represented in every relay. Palos Verdes is entered in the boys and girls mile and 2-mile. Hawthorne will compete in two boys relays and Palos Verdes in one girls relay. San Pedro and Westchester will run one boys relay.

Hawthorne Coach Kye Courtney expects a tough test for Conway and Hannah in the 60-meter dashes. A fast start is crucial and Conway and Hannah could lose ground out of the blocks. Both could overcome starting problems running 100-meter events, Courtney said. Despite potential problems, Conway likes the arena. “I like running on the boards ‘cause it seems faster,” he said.

Courtney said his club probably would frustrate competitors in two of the relays.

“I try to stay out of the individual events and keep as much pressure off the kids as possible,” Courtney said.

“I’d rather have them run in groups because that’s where I think we can win.”

Hawthorne seems assured of a victory in the boys mile relay. Courtney said he can rest Conwayand Hannah for the 60 dashes, run less-experienced athletes in their place and come out six seconds ahead in the relay.

Without Conway and Hannah, Hawthorne should run about a 3:21 mile, which, Courtney said, will beat any competitor by six seconds. A mile-relay team that included Conway and Hannah ran a 3:12.9 at last Saturday’s USC All-Comers Meet.

Hawthorne’s girls relay team could have trouble in the 2-mile with key runner Kristina Ross getting over an illness. But Courtney said a girls mile relay win is probable after his team ran a 3:55 last Saturday.

Sophomore Kee-Sha Adams anchors two of Hawthorne’s relay squads. She has run the fastest 200 in the nation’s 14-year-old bracket. Junior Rhonda Kennerson keys Hawthorne’s 2-mile relay.

Courtney said Locke, Muir and Long Beach Poly are among the toughest competitors.

The Sunkist will offer Morningside’s Moses a chance to conquer footing problems that made her finish second in last year’s 880.

“I would have finished first but I stumbled three times (because of the banks),” said Moses, who also plays basketball at Morningside. “I like the indoors because it seems to be quicker, but I was scared last year because I knew I might fall.”

It’s unlikely Moses will stumble Friday, but she said she has to ice her feet after training because they’ve become tender from frequent switching between basketball and running shoes.

Klassen, a senior pole-vaulter at USC who tied for sixth at the 1987 NCAA championships and finished fourth at the NCAAs in 1985, is shooting for a berth on the Olympic team. With Olympic trials in July, he said the Sunkist is just a preliminary for world-class athletes.

“Everybody really trains for the trials,” Klassen said. “I wasn’t going to compete in the Sunkist but Ichanged my mind. I’ve been off the ground only twice this year and it’s the same with a lot of guys, so I’m not taking this too seriously.”

Atkinson, formerly of Mira Costa High, took fourth at the 1986 NCAAs and TAC meet as a senior at Stanford. Now he is living in Los Altos, training with his college coach and looking toward the Olympic trials. He says he’ll be hard-pressed to win the mile.

“All the competitors have their merits and I’m kind of the guy coming out of the woodwork,” Atkinson said. “I’m the upstart unknown who has to sneak up on somebody.”