Agoura Girls Win Race but Miss Record

Agoura High’s 6,400-meter relay team of Laura Hayward, Tiffany York, Kristie Camp and Deena Drossin, hoping to set a meet record at the Mt. San Antonio Relays at Mt. SAC in Walnut Friday night, barely fell short.

Their winning time was 20 minutes 35.05 seconds, and the meet record is 20:34.1, set in 1987 by a Mexican high school team.

“Why is it always one second?” Drossin said without expressing dissatisfaction. “It’s like we’re jinxed or something.”

Last Saturday at the Arcadia Invitational, Drossin’s nation-leading 10:19.63 effort in the 3,200 fell short of the meet record of 10:18.41, set by Palos Verdes’ Kristen O’Hara in 1984.

“One second is all the time in the world when it comes to records,” Agoura Coach Bill Duley said.

Hayward led Agoura off with a 5:15.6 split and handed the baton to York in fifth place after taking over the lead from Mexico at 2 1/2 laps.

York’s 5:13.3 clip brought the Chargers from fifth to first over the first 360 meters of the second leg. The UC Irvine-bound senior led Mexico by as much as 30 meters and relayed the stick to Camp with a 20-meter advantage.

Camp extended Agoura’s margin by 75 meters at the 800 mark on the third leg. Camp clocked a 5:11.2 split, giving Drossin and Agoura an insurmountable lead.

Drossin needed to run 4:54.2 or better on the anchor to break the record but ran a 4:54.5. The time is faster that Drossin’s personal best of 4:54.71, but it will not count for record purposes because she clocked it on a relay with a running start.

Although Agoura won by about 275 meters over Escondido San Pasqual (21:22.90), which overtook Mexico (21:26.80) on the final lap, Agoura took its failed record attempt in stride.

In the boys’ 6,400-meter relay, Hart remained in the running throughout and Billy Dixon had the Indians second to San Pasqual by a meter with 150 to go, but Robert Walker put on a sprint to finish Hart and win the race in 17:56.7. Walker timed 4:17.7 and Dixon ran 4:20.9 as Hart finished in 18:00.0.