ATHLETE OF THE WEEK : Shifting Gears : Burnham’s Sprint Times Improved as Workout Regimen Intensified

The date was Saturday, March 19, and Angela Burnham of Rio Mesa High had just won the girls’ 100 and 200 meters in the Northridge Invitational at Cal State Northridge.

Her wind-aided time of 11.53 seconds in the 100 was the fastest high school time in the nation, and her 24.16 in the 200 led the state. But Rio Mesa Coach Brian FitzGerald was worried.

“I remember saying to myself, ‘Oh, my goodness, this is too fast too soon.’ ” FitzGerald recalled Tuesday. “I wasn’t sure if her body was ready for those kinds of times yet.”

FitzGerald might not have been sure, but Burnham was.

Three weeks after the Northridge meet, the 1986 state 100 champion won the 100 and 200 in the prestigious Arcadia Invitational with personal bests of 11.65 and 23.94.

But FitzGerald was still worried, so he increased the quantity of Burnham’s workouts, gearing them more to the 400 than the 100.

“I wanted to make sure she didn’t peak too soon,” he explained. “I wanted her to have the strength to peak at the state meet.”

His strategy appears to have paid off as Burnham won her first 4-A Division titles in the 100 and 200 at the Southern Section track championships at Cerritos College in Norwalk on Saturday.

The lithe 5-foot, 5-inch, 109-pound junior ran a wind-aided 11.38 in the 100 and a legitimate 23.58 in the 200 to hold off Muir sophomore Inger Miller (11.43, 23.59) in both events. Burnham also qualified for the Olympic Trials in the 200, as did Miller.

Her 100 clocking was well under the trials’ standard of 11.60, but a 2.95 meter-per-second tail wind rendered it unacceptable for record purposes. A reading of 2.0 is the maximum allowable.

Neither Burnham nor FitzGerald, however, is worried about qualifying in that event.

“I feel like I can run faster,” Burnham said Saturday. “I didn’t feel that good today. I felt sloppy and uncoordinated.”

FitzGerald, who is gearing Burnham’s workouts for a peak performance at the state championships at Cerritos on June 3-4, agreed.

“I think her fastest times are still to come. We’ve just started to taper her workouts,” he said. Until then, Burnham’s goals are to win state titles in the 100 and 200.

“I’ve felt all season that this was my year,” Burnham said. “I won the state title as a freshman, but a lot of people said I was lucky. And then I had the leg problems last year. I want to show people that I’m a good sprinter this year.”