HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK : Rio Mesa’s Jones Strengthens Her Hold in Dashes

Marion Jones of Rio Mesa High remembered well her losses to former Muir standout Inger Miller in the 100- and 200-meter dashes in the Arcadia Invitational last year.

Jones particularly remembers her loss in the 200 when she ran out of steam and made a desperation lunge for the tape.

A year later, Jones was determined to enter the meet with improved stamina. She raced in numerous 400 events earlier this season and the strategy paid dividends when she clocked a nation-leading time of 54.66 seconds. But Jones merely was using the one-lap race to build her endurance for the 200.

In four 400 races this season before the Arcadia meet, she timed 54.94, 56.5, 58.4 and 54.66.

At Arcadia High on Saturday night, Jones had plenty of steam. In fact, she smoked Cocoa (Fla.) High’s Zundra Feagin, Track & Field News magazine’s female prep athlete of the year in 1990, down the stretch to win the 200.

Jones clocked 22.87, which not only qualifies as a national sophomore and age-15 record but is the second-fastest time on the all-time U. S. high school list and the quickest low-altitude time by a female high school runner.

“I’ve been running a lot of 400s lately and I think it has made me stronger,” Jones said. “(Saturday) I could feel the difference.”

By virtue of the slight smile that creased her face about 30 meters before the finish Saturday, Jones was definitely pleased.

One down, one to go: Jones’ worst times in the 100 and 200 probably could qualify as school records at almost any other high school. Except Rio Mesa.

Jones entered Rio Mesa as a freshman in the fall of 1989, just after five-time state sprint champion Angela Burnham graduated in June.

Burnham’s school record times of 11.28 and 23.45 seemed formidable, but Jones snatched the school 200 record at Arcadia in 22.87 and is bearing down on the 100 mark after running 11.40 and 11.38 the past two weekends.

Tokyo bound: Jones’ 22.87 at Arcadia gives her a second “A” standard qualifying mark in as many weeks for the World Championships on Aug. 24-31 in Tokyo. The 200 standard is 23.60.

Jones timed 11.40 in the 100 in the Oakland Relays two weeks ago to equal the “A” standard for the World Championships and bettered the mark at Arcadia on Saturday in 11.38.

Running on empty: Darryl Stroh, the demonstrative baseball coach at Granada Hills, has termed this year’s team one his the worst on the basepaths.

And he certainly has a point.

In last week’s 7-6 loss to Poly in the Holt-Willis tournament final, Granada Hills made enough mistakes on the basepaths to fill a blooper video. In fact, had the Highlanders not run themselves out of several innings, they might have run away from Poly.

Selected lowlights:

* With Granada Hills leading, 2-0, with two out and runners at first and second in the third inning, Erik Anderson stopped at third on a base hit to left by Ari Jacobs. Anderson had been given the green light by the third-base coach. The Highlanders did not score in the inning.

* With the bases loaded and one out in the fourth, Jacobs popped out to short and the infield-fly rule was invoked. When Poly shortstop Raul Torres dropped the ball, however, Granada Hills’ Sam Voita took off from second base and was caught in a rundown. Voita was tagged out for a rare double play.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in my 25 years,” Stroh said.

* In the fifth, pinch-runner Gaby Halcovich fell between first and second on a blown sacrifice-bunt attempt and was easily tagged out.

Running amok on the basepaths put an end to another Highlander run: Granada Hills entered the game on a 5-0-1 roll.

Add basepaths: Baserunning also was pivotal when Kennedy beat Chatsworth, 9-6, in eight innings Monday.

With the score tied, 4-4, Kennedy’s Billy Ramirez led off the eighth with a double and moved to third on an infield error. A Kennedy squeeze bunt failed and Ramirez was hung up in a rundown between third and home.

Ramirez, however, touched off a controversy when he eluded the tag of Chatsworth catcher Adam Pearlman as he scored the go-ahead run. Ramirez may--or may not--have left the baseline to escape the tag.

Kennedy Coach Manny Alvarado said the plate umpire found himself in a no-win situation.

“It was close, real close,” Alvarado said. “Let’s put it this way--if they’d have called him out, I would have been all over the call. So (Chatsworth Coach Tom Meusborn) got all over him instead.”

Mike Glaze and staff writer Steve Elling contributed to this notebook.