Ereng Loses; Scott and Favor Win Mile Titles

The Sunkist Invitational at the Sports Arena began at 4:15 p.m. Friday and didn’t end until more than seven hours later. Ben Johnson’s part in it lasted only 5.74 seconds.

So what else did the meet offer for a crowd of 12,438?

Johnson wasn’t the only prominent athlete to lose. So did Olympic gold medalist Paul Ereng of Kenya. Algeria’s Nourredine Morceli, ranked No. 1 in the world in the 1,500 meters last year, didn’t make it to the starting line.

Steve Scott did, and almost broke four minutes in the mile for the 137th time.

One favorite who won was Suzy Favor in the women’s mile. Tony Dees, who runs for George Steinbrenner’s track club in Florida, set a meet record in the 50-meter hurdles. The shotput competition at West L.A. College earlier in the day apparently was so compelling that it was held twice. Art McDermott won both times.

Women’s Mile--PattiSue Plumer was one of the best U.S. women track athletes in 1990. Either she or world cross-country champion Lynn Jennings probably will be No. 1 in the nation when the rankings are released next month.

But Plumer, who is considered better at distances longer than a mile, didn’t have the speed to stay in this race with Favor, who won the NCAA championship in both the 800 meters and the 1,500 meters last year for the University of Wisconsin and also won the 1,500 at the national championships.

Few women could have.

Favor broke away from the field in the final quarter mile, which she ran in a rapid 61 seconds, and won easily in 4:39.39. Plumer faded to fourth in 4:45.17.

“I’ve been fighting a flu all week,” Plumer said. “But I don’t care how well I was feeling. I don’t think I could have run the last quarter like she did.”

Men’s Mile--Morceli committed to run more than a month ago. But, according to promoter Al Franken, his coach called this week and said that Morceli wouldn’t compete unless three other Algerian athletes also received appearance fees to compete. Franken balked, and Morceli bolted.

Although Scott said that he would have preferred to run against Morceli, he wasn’t going to give the victory back. It was his first since June.

The scoreboard clock registered 3:59.9, but his official time was 4:00.25.

“I was disappointed not to have Morceli in the race,” Scott said. “You want to push yourself. But it felt really good to re-establish myself as a factor. I know I can’t dominate like years past. I just want to be competitive and give the good guys a race.”

Men’s 880--Of all the athletes entered, perhaps only Johnson had better recent credentials than Ereng. In the 800 meters, he won at the 1988 Summer Olympics, was ranked No. 1 outdoors in the world in 1989 and holds the indoor world record at 1:44.84.

So when Ereng pronounced himself fit and asked for a pace-setter in the field, Franken was glad to oblige.

But the race was a disappointment from the start as the pace-setter, Thomas Koech of Kenya, went out slower than expected.

Bothered by the pushing and shoving in a 10-man field, Ereng wasn’t up to the task, anyway. American Stanley Redwine moved into the lead shortly before Koech dropped out and held it, winning in 1:51.39. Ereng was second in 1:52.20.

“There were just too many people out there,” Ereng said.

Men’s 50-Meter Hurdles--While some of the best-known high hurdlers, such as Roger Kingdom, Greg Foster and Renaldo Nehemiah, weren’t in the field, one who should be better known, Dees, had little trouble winning in 6.43.

It was the 11th-best performance of all time, beating Foster’s meet record of 6.45, and made Dees, ranked No. 2 in the world last year in the 110-meter hurdles, the fourth-fastest man to ever run the event, behind Canadian Mark McKoy, Foster and Nehemiah.

Women’s 440--Diane Dixon, a nine-time national champion, appears to be thriving now that she has returned to Brooklyn after a brief stay in Ohio.

She led from the outset and won in 53.25. That was not far off her meet-record time of 53.18 in 1990.

The night started badly for Loren Seagrave, Johnson’s coach. His wife, Kathy Freeman, finished third in 56.82 but was disqualified for breaking early into the inside lane.

Prep Notes

Marion Jones, a Rio Mesa High sophomore, ran the 50 meters in 6.43 to tie a 14-year-old U.S. record set by Jeanette Bolden of Compton. . . . Juliana York of Walnut jumped 42-11 1/2 in the triple jump to better her previous U.S. record of 42-5 1/2. That also was better than the outdoor triple jump record of 42-10 1/2 set by Wendy Brown in 1984. . . . Louie Quintana of Arroyo Grande High won the mile in 4:14.20, beating Jama Bile, brother of Abdi Bile of Somalia.

Times staff writer Lonnie White contributed to this story.