Rio Mesa Track Team May Improve, Still Lose in State Championships

Rio Mesa High scored 28 points to tie Bakersfield for the girls’ title in last year’s state high school track and field championships at Cerritos College in Norwalk. And although the Spartans could exceed that total in this year’s state meet--which begins at Cerritos College on Friday and ends Saturday--co-Coach Brian FitzGerald does not expect his team to win.

“I think Bakersfield is the team to beat. They’ve got good relay teams. They’ve got a good sprinter in (Janice) Nichols and they’re going to score big points in the weight events,” said FitzGerald, who expects Rio Mesa and Pasadena Muir to battle for second.

Bakersfield will be led by Melissa Weis, the defending state champion in the discus, who will compete in that event as well as the shotput. Angela Burnham will lead Rio Mesa, runner-up in the Southern Section 3-A Division championships two weeks ago.

Burnham, the defending state champion in the 100 and 200 meters, appears ready to successfully defend her titles. She ran national-leading times of 11.52 seconds in the 100 and 23.49 in the 200 to win both races in the Masters meet at Cerritos on Friday night.

In the process, she defeated Muir junior Inger Miller (11.53, 23.84), who had beaten Burnham in the 100 in the Northridge-Alemany Relays in March and in the Arcadia Invitational in April.

“I think it was important to Angela that she beat Miller in the 100 last week,” FitzGerald said. “But she knows that this week is the one that really counts. This is the meet she’s been waiting for all season. All her training has been geared toward June 3.”

In addition to Burnham, Rio Mesa also qualified for the state meet in the 400- and 1,600-meter relays, and Shannon Wiebelhaus placed fourth in the 300-meter low hurdles to qualify in that event.

The top five finishers in each event in the Masters qualified for the state meet.

After placing third in the 400 relay (school record of 47.03) behind Hawthorne and Muir (both timed in 46.46) in the Masters meet, the Spartan relay team of Danielle Tanner, Wiebelhaus, Stacy Rosemeyer and Burnham shocked many observers--including FitzGerald--by winning the 1,600 relay in a school-record time of 3 minutes, 48.66 seconds.

Muir finished second in 3:48.93 and Hawthorne was third in 3:50.65.

“There were a lot of gaping mouths after that race,” FitzGerald said. “A lot of people were shocked when Stacy gave Angela the baton in first place for the anchor leg. . . . That was one of the most exciting things that’s ever happened to me as a coach.”

Despite the improvement--more than three seconds--on their previous best, FitzGerald said that Burnham and Co. are capable of running faster this week.

“We should be able to run 3:46 or 3:47,” FitzGerald said. “I’m not sure about 3:45. That would take a perfect race from everyone.”

Charles Brown of Channel Islands and Mike Williamson of Thousand Oaks ran the fastest races of their careers in the Masters to qualify for the state championships.

Brown placed second in the 300 intermediate hurdles in 37.72 and Williamson finished second in the 3,200 in 9:07.41.

Camarillo junior Abe Valdez also qualified in the 3,200, finishing fourth in 9:13.91. Fillmore freshman Nikki Shaw placed third in the girls’ 1,600 with a personal best of 5:01.93.