Devine Makes Overdue Strides in Track Final

The waiting finally ended for Saugus High distance coach Steve Spraker and his prize pupil, Joe Devine, at the Southern Section Masters track meet at Cerritos College in Norwalk on Friday night.

After several weeks of satisfying victories--and disappointing times--Devine placed second in the 1,600 meters with a personal best of 4 minutes, 10.40 seconds to qualify for next week’s state championships at Cerritos.

“He’s had a 4:10 in him for a long time,” Spraker said. “It was just a matter of getting him in a race with good competition.

“He’s been winning easily the last few weeks, but he just hasn’t had the competition to run real fast. Tonight he did.”

After running near the back of the pack for the first 400 meters, Devine moved into fourth at the 800-meter mark (2:05.1) and took the lead at 1,200 meters in 3:08.3.

“I felt real confident with a lap to go,” said Devine, who won the Southern Section 4-A Division title with his previous best of 4:14.69. “But I was hurting in the last part of the race. That final 100 was pretty painful.”

Devine appeared to have the race won with 200 meters remaining, but Newport Harbor’s Jim Geerlings passed him in the final straightaway with an explosive kick.

“It looked like someone lit a fire under him,” Spraker said of Geerlings, who ran a Southern Section-leading time of 4:09.54. “There was no way to defend against that.”

Devine was not phased by the loss, however. “The biggest thing tonight was to qualify for the state meet. . . I still think I’ve got a shot at winning it,” he said.

Angela Burnham of Rio Mesa qualified for the state championships in three events, winning the 100 meters in a personal best of 11.59, placing second in the 200 in 23.66 and anchoring the Spartans’ 400 relay team to a third-place finish in 48.00, the best time in the Valley area this season.

Burnham’s loss in the 200 to Channel League-rival Simone Cain of Hueneme (23.65) was her first of the season, but her time in the 100 qualified her for the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis in July. Burnham ran 23.58 to qualify for the trials in the 200 last week at the Southern Section championships.

Morgan Bateman, a junior from Crescenta Valley, is another Valley-area athlete with state-title aspirations, but he was gunned down in the final 200 meters of the 800.

After taking the lead at 550 meters, Bateman was passed by Eric Smith of Redlands (1:52.22) and Edgar Montes of Nogales (1:52.56) in the last 100. Nevertheless, the 4-A champion’s time of 1:52.66 was his second personal best in the past week.

Nicole Smith, a sophomore from Montclair Prep, and Jenny Whelchel, a senior from Agoura, each won events.

Smith, who became the first athlete in school history to win an individual Southern Section track title in the 1-A long jump last week, went 18-6 to record a personal best and Valley-area leading mark. Mary Bittner of Rio Mesa qualified fifth with a wind-aided effort of 17-11.

Whelchel continued her consistent throwing in the shotput. The defending state champion and two-time defending Southern Section 1-A champion won with a throw of 42-9.

It was the 12th meet this season in which the UCLA-bound Whelchel broke the 40-foot barrier.

Other top qualifying efforts were turned in by Russell White of Crespi in the 200 (21.60), Tony Borquez of Alemany in the 400 (48.29) and Tom Parker of Notre Dame in the pole vault (15-6). Parker placed second and White and Borquez finished third in their events.

Valley-area leaders Crissy Mills of Campbell Hall, Cindy Byrne of Canyon and Marji Gilles of Burbank also qualified for the state meet. Mills placed second in the high jump at 5-6, Byrne placed third in the 300-meter low hurdles in 44.31 and Gilles qualified third in the triple jump at 38-4.