MT. SAC RELAYS : Walnut Takes Dana Hills Out of Relay

Mike Tansley never had a chance. And for that, he can thank Matt Hempel.

Tansley, running the anchor leg of the boys’ 4 x 1,600-meter relay at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays Friday, never got a chance to show his speed.

Hempel, part of a brother combination for Walnut, broke the race open on the leg before Tansley got the baton, and Dana Hills was too far behind to make it close.

Hempel got the baton back in fifth place but ran powerfully into the lead midway through his leg. And when he handed off to brother Scott, Walnut had a 10-second lead on Dana Hills.

Walnut went on to win in a meet-record 17 minutes 35.61 seconds, breaking Santa Barbara’s 10-year-old standard of 17:42.8.

Dana Hills, despite a fine 4:19.75 leg by Tansley, was a well-beaten second in 17:44.77. Tansley had turned in a personal-best and school-record of 9:10.11 for 3,200 two weeks ago at the Arcadia Invitational.

Steve Niednagel, Andrew Tansley and Dan Niednagel ran the first three legs for Dana Hills.

Mater Dei, thanks to a strong 4:17.5 anchor leg by Mike Nielsen, came from behind to take third in 17:47.94.

El Modena was fifth in 18:02.27.

Earlier in the afternoon, with 600 meters to go in the boys’ invitational 3,000, a pack of about six runners--including Jimmy Rodriguez of Santa Ana Valley--were bunched at the front.

But David Welsh of Sacramento Jesuit quickly ruined any hopes the others had of winning. Welsh used a long, drawn-out kick to win in a meet-record 8:23.11, breaking the old mark of 8:24.7 set by Ramon Gomez of L.A. Belmont in 1984. And in the process he pulled the field to some very fast times.

Jorge Ibarri of Mexico was second in 8:25.97, and Bryan Dameworth of Agoura was third in 8:29.02.

Rodriguez was fifth in 8:31.12, a personal best for the distance, which is run less often than the 3,200 in boys’ competition.

Eddie Lavelle of Corona del Mar, who had run in third until just past the 1,600 mark, finished seventh in 8:34.06. Lavelle will run the invitational 1,500 today at 11:20 a.m.

Orange County teams fared well in boys’ 4 x 400 meter relays.

Edison had the fastest time among county teams, running 3:24.97 for second in its race. Ken Arao, a transfer student from Japan, ran an unofficial 50.8 leadoff leg, Matt Hart followed with a 53.8, Tom Tyler 50.5 and Dave Baker 50.0 as Edison finished a close second to Leuzinger (3:24.44).

Katella ran 3:26.84 to edge Valencia, which ran 3:26.88, to win its heat.

In the 4 x 100 relay, Valencia’s team of Eric Whitcomb, Rick Smith, Brian Anderson and Kevin Thomas ran 44.1 to win its heat over second-place Etiwanda (44.4) and third-place Edison.

Mt. SAC Notes

The high school portion of the meet continues today at 8 a.m. . . . Brian Zeiler of Trabuco Hills won the pole vault with a leap of 13-feet-6. . . . Andy Marron of Dana Hills finished second to Terry Pearce of Paso Robles in the discus. Pearce outthrew Marron 154-7 1/2 to 144-9.