SOUTHERN SECTION TRACK AND FIELD : Miller Leads Veterans in Girls’ Field

More than 1,500 high school athletes will compete today in the 78th annual Southern Section divisional track and field meet at Cerritos College.

The four-division meet, which includes both boys’ and girls’ competition, will begin at 3 p.m. with the field events. Track events start at 4. The top nine finishers in each event will qualify for next week’s Masters’ Meet.

Sprinter Inger Miller of Pasadena Muir, the defending girls’ 4-A Division 100- and 200-meter champion, heads the girls’ competition, but 27 of the 60 events have returning champions. Miller, who will anchor the Mustangs’ 400- and 1,600-meter relay teams, is the force behind Muir’s bid to repeat as 4-A champions.

In the girls’ 3-A Division, freshman Marion Jones is expected to lead Oxnard Rio Mesa to its second consecutive championship. Jones, who set a divisional record of 11.66 seconds in the 100 meters in last week’s preliminaries, is the leading qualifier in both the 100 and 200 meters.

Highlighting the boys’ competition will be the 1-A Division showdown between Coley Candaele of Carpinteria and Bryan Dameworth of Agoura, two of the top middle distance runners in the nation, in the 1,600 meters.

The boys’ 4-A Division 100 and 200 meters also will be competitive races with leading qualifiers Andre Green of Long Beach Poly, Tim Martin of San Clemente, John Thomas of San Bernardino, Kenneth Moore of Compton Dominguez and Chris Alexander of Hawthorne.