Jones Runs to Share of National Record in 50-Meter Sprint : Prep track: Rio Mesa sophomore equals 14-year-old mark with time of 6.43 seconds.

Marion Jones of Rio Mesa High had every right to be distracted Friday night, but she wasn’t.

Andre Cason had defeated Ben Johnson in the men’s 50-meter dash minutes earlier at the Sunkist Invitational at the Sports Arena, and a mob of photographers was stalking Cason on a victory lap when Jones settled into the blocks for the start of the high school girls’ 50.

“I knew the crowd was cheering for Ben and the previous race,” Jones said. “But I didn’t let it bother me. I thought it was neat. I just pretended like they were cheering for me and it worked.”

Feeding off the crowd’s enthusiasm, Jones clocked 6.43 seconds to tie the national high school indoor record set by Jeanette Bolden of Compton Centennial in 1977.

Juliana Yendork of Walnut was a well-beaten second in 6.68.

Jones, who won the 100 and 200 meters as a freshman at last year’s state high school championships, had run 6.53 to win the 50 at the 1990 Sunkist meet. But her time was still surprising, considering that she had an average start and was running on an ankle she twisted during basketball practice Wednesday.

“It wasn’t a bad start, but it wasn’t a great start, either,” Jones said. “I kind of slipped coming out of the blocks, like I did in the relay. I guess my ankle is still a little weak and I’m not use to running on this type of surface.”

Nonetheless, Jones, 15, notched a share of her first national high school record to go with the national age-group records she set in the 200 meters when she was 13, and in the 100 (11.62) and 200 (23.70) when she was 14.

“I never run for records,” Jones said. “If you do that, you put too much presure on yourself. I just let them happen.”

Earlier in the meet, Jones had run the first leg on Rio Mesa’s 4 x 160-yard relay, which won heat two of that event in 1 minute 15.9 seconds, the third-fastest time of three races.

Ryan Kieling of Crespi was an upset winner in the boys’ 50-meter hurdles, running 6.98.

The defending Southern Section 2-A Division champion in the 110-meter highs and 300-meter intermediate hurdles, Kieling defeated a field which included Eric Bell of San Diego Castle Park (7.08) and Issac Carson of Jefferson (7.33), the runner-up in the high hurdles at last year’s state meet.

Deena Drossin, the defending state champion in the 3,200 meters, dropped down to the mile and finished second behind Sarah Schwald of Rogers High of Spokane, Wash., last year’s national leader in the event.

Drossin, who finished sixth in the Kinney national high school cross-country championships in San Diego last month, ran 5:00.1 to Schwald’s 4:59.7. Nikki Shaw of Fillmore was third in 5:00.9.

“I really had no idea what to expect of the race,” said Drossin, who has won three State Division I cross-country titles. “The outdoor track season is still a ways off, and we haven’t done any speed work yet.”

Jeannie Rothman of Westlake and Veronica Barajas of Channel Islands finished sixth (5:14.9) and seventh (5:15.2) in the same race.

In other events, Eric Holcomb of Westlake finished third in heat 2 of the boys’ 500 yards, running 1:00.9, and Erik Thomas of Quartz Hill finished fourth in the boys’ 50 meters in 6.03.

Thomas was only .04 seconds behind winner Tim Martin of San Clemente.

Alycia Burnham, who ran a leg on Rio Mesa’s 4 x 160 relay, also finished fourth in the girls’ long jump with a mark of 17 feet 5 1/4 inches.