SOUTHERN SECTION TRACK PRELIMINARIES : Jones Dashes 11.66 to Set 3-A Record in 100 Meters

Marion Jones added the Southern Section 3-A Division 100-meter record to her growing list of credentials Saturday in the 3-A preliminaries at Camarillo High.

Jones, a Rio Mesa High freshman, clocked 11.66 seconds to shatter the previous record of 11.96, set by Kim Grant of Hawthorne in 1981.

Jones already has established ninth-grade marks at Rio Mesa in the 100 and 200 meters as well as the age-14 standard in the 200, records that once belonged to Angela Burnham, who won five state sprint titles while at Rio Mesa.

“I was just going out there to win my race,” Jones said. “I would have been happy if I just won my race and got the record in the final. But it happened.”

It happened with legal wind, too. Jones’ 100 heat was run with a 1.73-meters-per-second tail wind. The maximum allowable is 2.0.

“Luckily the wind was going our way for a change,” Rio Mesa Coach Brian FitzGerald said. “It always seems that the wind is 2.1 when Rio Mesa kids break records.”

The wind was blowing at 3.05 m.p.s. during the 200 heats when Jones dashed to a 23.86 clocking, but Jones has a legal best of 23.80 this season.

Jones also anchored the Spartans’ 400 and 1,600 relay teams to a pair of heat wins. In the sprint relay, Rio Mesa timed 48.21, the fastest time of the day, to handily defeat runner-up Esperanza (49.40).

Rio Mesa won its heat in the longer relay and recorded the No. 2 time at 4:02.70 despite Stacy Rosemeyer running with a strained quadriceps muscle. Only Esperanza (4:02.11) ran faster.

Alycia Burnham, another Rio Mesa standout, won her heats in the 100 and 300 low hurdles and qualified third in the long jump for the 3-A finals, to be held Friday at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

Burnham ran a wind-aided 14.41 in the 100 hurdles and timed 47.56 in the 300 hurdles. She also long jumped 17 feet 0 1/4 inches and ran second on Rio Mesa’s qualifying 400 relay team.

Hart’s Steve Lepken came from five meters back to win his heat in the 1,600. Entering the final stretch Lepken sprinted past Jeff Matsumotoi of Mater Dei and Santa Fe’s Jeff Fleming to win in 4:23.41.

Matsumotoi and Fleming qualified for the final in 4:24.38 and 4:23.41, respectively.

Sprinter J. J. Alvarez anchored Oxnard’s 400 relay team to a 43.53 heat win and No. 2 time overall. Alvarez also advanced to the finals in the 100 (11.11) and 200 (22.71).

4-A Preliminaries: Camarillo’s Abe Valdez (9:16.24), Derek Kite (9:33.09) and Josh Gerry (9:36.25) all qualified for the 3,200 final.

Eliazar Herrera (9:18.03) of Hoover and Canyon teammates Dan Berkeland (9:24.10) and Dave Hartman (9:28.09) advanced to the final.

Bryan Krill of Thousand Oaks recorded the No. 3 time in qualifying for the 400, a 49.71 clocking.