Burnham, Miller to Tangle Again in Masters Meet

After winning different races in last week’s Southern Section track and field finals, Angela Burnham of Rio Mesa High and Inger Miller of Muir will clash head to head in the 100 and 200 meters at the Masters meet at Cerritos College on Friday.

The top nine performers--based on marks as opposed to places in their respective heats--from the section finals advanced to the Masters meet. The top five finishers in each event in Friday’s meet will qualify for the state championships June 2-3.

Burnham, the defending state champion in the 100 and 200, won both events in the 3-A Division meet with wind-aided times of 11.31 seconds and 23.68; Miller won her 4-A races in a wind-aided 11.53 and a legitimate 24.10.

Burnham also anchored the Spartans’ victorious 400- and 1,600-meter relay teams, which ran a season-best 47.40 in the short race and a school-record 3 minutes, 51.84 seconds in the latter.

Powered by Burnham, Rio Mesa placed second (46 points) behind Upland (50) in the 3-A meet.

Miller defeated Burnham in the 100 at the Northridge-Alemany Relays in March and at the Arcadia Invitational in April, while Burnham beat Miller in the 200 at Arcadia.

Burnham is the national leader in the 100 (11.57) and 400 (54.09), and Miller is the national leader in the 200 (23.62).

Several other Ventura County athletes qualified for the Masters meet, including Mike Williamson of Thousand Oaks, Charles Brown of Channel Islands and Nikki Shaw of Fillmore.

Williamson, who won the Southern Section 4-A cross-country crown last year, added the 1,600- and 3,200-meter titles to his collection Saturday.

Williamson, the runner-up in the state Division I cross-country championships, ran personal bests of 4:14.77 in the 1,600 and 9:08.12 in the 3,200.

Brown placed fourth in the 4-A 110-meter high hurdles (wind-aided 14.48) and second in the 300 intermediate hurdles (38.51).

Shaw, a freshman, placed second in the 1-A 800 and 1,600 with personal bests of 2:15.54 and 5:05.57.

Other qualifiers were Jason Stein of Oak Park, who won the boys’ 1-A 300 intermediate hurdles (38.80), and Shannon Wiebelhaus of Rio Mesa, who placed third in the girls’ 3-A 300 low hurdles (44.56) and also will run on both relay teams.