Sprinters Jones and Miller Join Fast Company : Northridge/Alemany Relays: Girls’ 100 produces the nation’s top time, and Bryan Dameworth suffers his first loss in nearly a year in the boys’ 800.

An unlikely star fell and new ones were on the rise at the Northridge/Alemany Relays high school track and field meet Saturday at Cal State Northridge.

Agoura’s Bryan Dameworth, the Valley’s most heralded distance runner, suffered his first loss to a high school runner since June when Pasadena Muir junior Hasan McCullough slipped by the Charger senior in the final steps to win the 800 meters in 1 minute 56.51 seconds. Dameworth timed a personal-best 1:56.54 in second.

Dameworth last lost in high school competition when David Welsh of Sacramento Jesuit won the 3,200 in last June’s state championship.

Rio Mesa freshman Marion Jones, meanwhile, made an impressive stand against the nation’s top returning high school sprinter.

Although she finished second in the 100, Jones shattered her previous best of 12.11 with an 11.76 mark. Winner Inger Miller of Muir stormed to a nation-leading 11.48 clocking, the third-fastest mark by a California prep and 10th best by a U. S. high school sprinter.

Earlier, Jones anchored the Spartans’ 400 relay team of Stacy Rosemeyer, Alycia Burnham and Danielle Tanner to second (47.75) behind a Miller-anchored Muir squad (46.55). The marks are the top two in the country this year.

Jones also won the 200 (24.06) and ran a 55.8 anchor split on Rio Mesa’s runner-up 1,600 relay team, which notched a 4:01.29 mark.

Rio Mesa Coach Brian FitzGerald said that Jones has been concentrating on the 200 and 400 but will point toward the shorter sprints for the championship meets.

“Marion lacked acceleration the first 20 meters but that will come toward the end of the season,” FitzGerald said. “Marion’s a little taller and it’s a little harder for taller sprinters to get out of the blocks.

“Marion doesn’t like to lose (but) we haven’t placed a whole lot of importance on this race other than an indicator (of where she is at now).”

Dameworth does not like losing either. The Kinney national cross-country champion sported a dazed look while sitting in a beach chair underneath a tree after his duel with McCullough.

“It happened so fast. He just sort of snuck up right at the perfect time,” Dameworth said. “I could have had a little more to pull on if I had someone running with me on the backstretch.”

Dameworth came back, though, to run a 4:21.6 1,600 leg on the final stage of Agoura’s victorious medley relay (10:40.9). The Chargers outdistanced Hart (10:46.3) and Dos Pueblos (10:47.2).

In other events, Hoover’s Eliazar Herrera ran 8:43.53 to win the 3,000 over Dan Berkeland (8:50.93) of Canyon, and John Lin of Saugus ran a lifetime-best 40.14 in the 300 intermediate hurdles to finish second.

On the field, Tim Ross of Royal cleared 6-4 to win the high jump and Hoover’s Gunnar Miller placed second in the pole vault with a 13-6 effort. Rio Mesa junior Patrick Van Scoy improved his Valley-leading mark in the shotput to 56-5 1/2 in finishing second.

In the girls’ 800, Birmingham freshman Deetra Dear improved her personal best by nearly four seconds with a Valley-leading 2:22.03 clocking.

Agoura’s Deena Drossin took the 1,500 in 4:48.04 and anchored the Chargers’ winning four-mile relay team (21:44.91) with a 5:13.8 effort. Jeannie Rothman of Westlake won the 3,000 in 10:36.12 over Agoura’s Tiffany York (10:47.77).