Burnham, Mills Hold On to Titles : Rio Mesa Sprinter, Campbell Hall Jumper Repeat as State Track Champions

Angela Burnham of Rio Mesa High and Crissy Mills of Campbell Hall both successfully defended their titles in the state track and field championships at Cerritos College in Norwalk on Saturday.

But their reactions to the victories were as different as the events in which they competed.

While junior Mills wore an I-can’t-believe-I-did-it smile of exhilaration after winning the high jump with a personal best of 6 feet, Burnham sported a just-another-day-at-the-office look after winning the 100 (wind-aided 11.31 seconds) and 200 meters (23.56) for the second year in a row.

Burnham’s victories--combined with last year’s double and her state 100 title as a freshman in 1986--put her into the record books in several categories.

Burnham is the first girl to win five state sprint titles during her career, surpassing Denean Howard of Kennedy, who won two titles each in the 200 and 400 in the early ‘80s. Burnham is also the first girl to win three 100 titles and the only girl to turn the 100-200 double in consecutive years.

Nevertheless, she appeared subdued after leading Rio Mesa--last year’s co-champion with Bakersfield--to a second-place finish behind Pasadena Muir in the team scoring.

Rio Mesa scored 26 points while Muir--led by Inger Miller--totaled 36.

Hawthorne, led by Curtis Conway, won its third consecutive title in the boys’ meet and its sixth in the past seven years.

“I’m just tired,” Burnham said after winning the 100, 200, and anchoring the Spartans’ 400- (47.53) and 1,600-meter (3 minutes, 52.14 seconds) relay teams to fourth- and fifth-place efforts, respectively. “I just ran to win today, I wasn’t thinking about any particular times.”

Burnham’s victory margins of .15 seconds in the 100 and .30 in the 200 were doubly impressive as they came against Miller, who had beaten Burnham in two (both 100s) of five previous meetings this season.

Burnham got off to a good start in the 100 and was never threatened. Miller came out of the blocks slowly, made up ground between 20 and 60 meters, but then couldn’t match Burnham’s final 40 meters.

“Her start was comparable to last year’s state meet,” Rio Mesa co-Coach Brian FitzGerald said. “I think it looked better than it was because Inger got out slowly.”

Miller led Burnham for the first 120 meters of the 200 before Burnham swooped past her with 60 meters left.

“She just has a great ability to hold her top-end speed,” FitzGerald said. “Inger was right with her coming off the turn, but she looked like she was carrying a weight at the end of the race.”

Mills had no such problems in the high jump, surpassing her previous best by 1 1/4 inches while coming from behind to defeat J. C. Broughton of Woodland, the state leader at 6-2 1/4.

“I still can’t believe I did it,” Mills said. “It’s just like last year. It really hasn’t set in yet.”

The last jumper in the competition order, Mills cleared 5-4, 5-6, 5-8 and 5-10 on her first attempts before needing three tries at a personal best of 5-11.

Broughton cleared that height on her initial attempt, so Mills found herself in second as the bar was raised to six feet.

“I kept telling myself I could make it,” Mills said. “But I was still surprised when I cleared it on my second attempt. I still can’t believe I did it.”

After Broughton’s third miss at that height, Mills had three relatively close attempts at a state-meet record of 6-2 1/4.

“Mentally I was telling myself that I could do it,” Mills said. “But physically, my body was saying, ‘get real, Crissy.’ ”

Todd Lewis of Burbank had similar feelings in the final 70 meters of the 1,600.

Fifth after the first 800 meters (2:05.8) and fourth after 1,200 (3:09.3), Lewis surged into the lead with 220 meters to go. But he could not hold off Francis O’Neill of Escondido San Pasqual and Coley Candaele of Carpinteria in the final straightaway.

O’Neill, fourth in the 1,600 in last year’s state meet, passed Lewis with 70 meters to go and Candaele, third in ‘88, nipped Lewis at the wire.

O’Neill ran 4 minutes, 8.67 seconds, Candaele timed 4:09.01 and Lewis clocked a personal best of 4:09.02.

“I ran as well as I could today,” Lewis said. “But he (O’Neill) just ran a great race. When he went by me in the stretch, he didn’t waste any time . . . I tried to respond but there was nothing there to respond with.”

Like Lewis, Bryan Dameworth of Agoura and Mike Williamson of Thousand Oaks set personal bests--in the boys’ 3,200 meters--but failed to win.

That honor went to David Welsh of Sacramento Jesuit, who won in 8:58.08. Dameworth placed second in 9:00.27 and Williamson was third in 9:04.91.

Williamson forced the early pace as expected--leading at 800 meters in 2:13.1 and at 1,600 in 4:27.8--but Dameworth, Welsh and Jimmy Rodriguez of Santa Ana Valley caught the Lancer senior with 600 meters to go.

Dameworth, the two-time defending state Division I cross-country champion pulled alongside Welsh with 250 meters to go, but Welsh repelled his charge and pulled away with 200 meters left.

Other third-place efforts came from Charles Brown of Channel Islands in the 300 intermediate hurdles (personal best of 37.60); Jeff Ingalls of Agoura in the 400 (48.18); Morgan Bateman of Crescenta Valley in the 800 (1:52.79); and Russell White of Crespi in the triple jump (48-7).

White also placed eighth in the 200 (21.83) and ninth in the long jump (23-1 1/4).

Deena Drossin of Agoura placed third in the girls’ 3,200 with a personal best of 10:36.67.