High School Notebook : Agoura Runners to Focus on 3,200

Despite qualifying in two events, both Bryan Dameworth and Deena Drossin of Agoura High will concentrate on only the 3,200 meters in the Southern Section Masters meet at Cerritos College in Norwalk on Friday.

Both runners also had qualified in the 1,600 meters but will not compete in that event, Coach Bill Duley said.

“I don’t feel it’s possible for most kids to compete well in both those events at that elite level,” Duley said. “So I gave Bryan and Deena a choice of what event they wanted to run.”

The top five finishers in each event at the Masters will qualify for the state championships next Friday and Saturday.

Dameworth, the two-time defending state Division I cross-country champion, took little time in making his decision, opting for the 3,200, in which he has the fastest time (9 minutes, 3.62 seconds) in the state this season.

But it took Drossin, winner of the Southern Section 1-A 1,600 and 3,200 on Saturday, a day to decide.

“She’s been running very well in both events,” Duley said. “But I think she feels that the 3,200 is her stronger race. Plus, she won’t have to run heats in that event at the state meet.”

Add Agoura: Although Dameworth is one of the favorites for the state title in the 3,200, it has been a disappointing season for him in the 1,600.

Hoping to run under 4:10 in the event, Dameworth ran a season best of 4:15.75 to place second behind Coley Candaele of Carpinteria in the 1-A finals.

“I set some pretty high goals for him in the 1,600, hoping that he would take it on as his primary event,” Duley said. “But he just feels more comfortable in the 3,200.

“He’s in shape to run a lot faster than he has in the 1,600, but he just hasn’t been in the right race at that distance.”

The 1-A race was a good example of that; the early pace lagged (first 400 in 65.5 seconds), effectively putting to rest Dameworth’s hope of a fast time.

“He ran the last 1,200 in 3:10,” Duley said. “But that first lap was just too slow.”

Nothing but nyet: Even though Sunday’s basketball game at UC Irvine between a group of high school all-stars from the Soviet Union and the Slam-N-Jam all-stars was played under international rules, the locals showed the visitors what a fast-break atmosphere is all about.

“The gym was rocking and everybody was really into it,” said Cleveland’s Adonis Jordan, who played for Slam-N-Jam, a 127-99 winner before 1,600 spectators. “I had a blast.”

The international rules took some getting used to, though.

“You can inbound the ball faster,” Jordan said. “And that helped us run, but it was different. You can goaltend the ball off the rim, the lanes are a little wider and there were no alley-oops. None of us were used to that.”

The most striking difference between the teams was in size. None of the Soviet players, who are touring the United States, were shorter than 6-foot-4.

“They were all bigger, but a little slower,” said the 5-10 Jordan, who scored 10 points.

What about communication?

“We had a (Soviet) guy in our room before the game that spoke a little bit of English,” Jordan said. “But we did pretty good communicating with the body language.”

Body language of another sort took longer to get accustomed to. On the court, the Soviets were more physical than the Californians.

“You had to get slammed to the ground before anything got called,” Jordan said. “They were rough.”

Add Jordan: The Kansas-bound senior will play his last high school game for the California entry in the Boston Shootout on June 22-24 at the Boston Garden.

The tournament features all-star teams from 50 states, Jordan said. Among those expected to join him are Tracy Murray of Glendora, Zan Mason of Westchester and Mitchell Butler of Oakwood, all of whom played against the Soviet team.

Staff writers Steve Elling and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.