Burnham Finally Overtakes Miller, Wins 200 at Arcadia

After suffering her second defeat of the season to Inger Miller of Muir High in the 100 meters earlier, Angela Burnham of Rio Mesa was hardly brimming with confidence as she crouched in the starting blocks for the 200 at the Arcadia Invitational track meet at Arcadia High on Saturday night.

“I figured that the 200 would be my bad race if I ran one,” said Burnham, the defending state champion in the 100 and 200. “I wasn’t really sure how well I’d run.”

Any doubts Burnham harbored evaporated quickly as the Spartan senior--trailing Miller entering the homestretch--gunned down her rival in the final 40 meters to win in 23.63 seconds, the second-fastest high school time in the nation this season.

“I just told myself to relax and go after her coming off the turn,” Burnham said.

Burnham had run the second-fastest time in the nation in the 100 (11.64), but Miller had run the fastest (11.59) by pulling away in the last 20 meters.

Now a winner of three consecutive Arcadia 200s, Burnham also turned in superb performances in the relays, anchoring the Spartans to third in the invitational 400 relay (47.77) and second in the seeded 1,600 relay (3 minutes, 56.62 seconds) with a 55.9 anchor leg.

Todd Lewis of Burbank and Bryan Dameworth of Agoura also ran strong last laps to win the boys’ 1,600 and 3,200 meters.

Lewis timed 61.5 over the final 400 to win the 1,500 in 4:11.20 and Dameworth ran a 64.3 last lap to win the 3,200 in 9:03.62.

The times were personal bests for each runner, and coincidentally, both Lewis and Dameworth set their previous bests at last year’s Arcadia meet, when Lewis placed fourth in the 1,600 in 4:14.5 and Dameworth finished seventh in the 3,200 in 9:06.46.

Lewis’ victory came against a stellar field that included Coley Candaele of Carpinteria and Francis O’Neill of San Pasqual St. Francis.

“I really wanted to win this race and run a good time,” said Lewis, who will attend Stanford. “But I knew there were a lot of really good guys in the race.”

Content to run in the middle of the pack for the first 800 (2:06.7), Lewis moved into second at 1,200 meters (3:09.4) and surged past leader Mike Williamson of Thousand Oaks with 350 meters remaining.

“I just decided to make my move right then,” Lewis said. “I figured there was no reason to wait any longer.”

Lewis caught the field by surprise as he opened a seven-meter lead with 200 to go and then repelled the homestretch charges of Corona del Mar’s Eddie Lavelle (4:11.94) and Arroyo Grande’s Luis Quintana (4:12.24).

O’Neill finished fourth in 4:12.89 and Candaele placed seventh in 4:15.07. Williamson faded to eighth, but still ran a personal best of 4:15.65.

Although Dameworth’s time was short of his pre-meet goal of 8:57, the Agoura junior could take pride in that it was a national outdoor leader.

“Everyone just pulled in behind me at the start,” Dameworth said. “So I knew right then that if I wanted to run fast, I was going to have to lead.”

After running the opening 1,600 in 4:31.4, Dameworth and Wilson sophomore Martin Morales broke away from the pack.

Morales hung at Dameworth’s shoulder until the bell lap, when the two-time defending state Division I cross-country champion surged away.

In other events, Crissy Mills of Campbell Hall won the girls’ high jump at 5 feet, 8 inches, and Tony Borquez of Alemany placed third in the 400 meters.

Borquez ran a personal best of 47.96 as Albert Ransom of Denver Montbello won with a nation-leading 46.57. Borquez also won the seeded 200 in 22.03.