Jones Sets Record in 100 Victory

Marion Jones’ start in the 100 meters in the state track and field championships Saturday looked more like a jet fighter being catapulted off the deck of an aircraft carrier than a 15-year-old girl starting a track race.

The Rio Mesa High sophomore, as she has done in almost every race this season, abruptly left the eight other starters behind and accelerated to a National High School Federation record of 11.17 seconds in winning her second consecutive state 100 title before a crowd of 10,510 at Cerritos College.

About the only thing missing was a vapor trail as Jones erased her previous federation record of 11.28, set in the Southern Section Masters meet last week. The time, run with a legal 1.93 meters-per-second tail wind, pulls Jones even with Wendy Vereen of Trenton (N.J.) Central High as the second-fastest U.S. high school girl sprinter. Only Chandra Cheeseborough of Ribault (Jacksonville, Fla.) High (11.13) has run faster.

Tamika Bradfield of Dominguez was a distant second Saturday in 11.71.

Jones turned in an 11.12 mark in the preliminaries Friday but the race was aided by a 4.10-meters-per-second wind. Before Saturday’s final, Jones thought the wind was stronger than it was Friday.

“It felt like it was going up,” Jones said of the wind. “It wasn’t a major concern. I just didn’t want it to be over the allowable.”

At 2.25, the wind was over the allowable 2.0 in the 200, in which Jones ran 22.91 en route to her second consecutive state championship in that event. She also has won two 100 titles.

Bradfield was also second in the 200, finishing more than a full second behind in 23.94.

Jones’ double victory, combined with teammate Alycia Burnham’s third-place finish in the 100 low hurdles, helped the Spartans finish second to Inglewood Morningside in team scoring, 28-26.

“It was just a clutch performance for her,” Rio Mesa co-Coach Brian FitzGerald said of Burnham’s run. “It was by far the best race I’ve seen her run.”

Burnham recovered from a slow start to time a wind-aided 14.27 and nip Southern Section Masters meet champion Elinor Tolson (14.29) of Fountain Valley at the finish. Burnham, whose legal best is 14.45, had placed fifth in the Masters meet and fourth in the Southern Section 3-A Division final.

In other events, Agoura’s Deena Drossin successfully defended her state 3,200 title and Dave Hartman of Canyon posted the second-fasted time in the nation this year in winning the boys’ 3,200 in dramatic fashion.

Drossin, running fourth after 5 1/4 laps, surged to the front during the next 100 meters and was never challenged thereafter, winning in 10 minutes 30.71 seconds.

Westlake’s Jeannie Rothman, who had towed the field through a 5:10.9 first 1,600, finished third in a personal-best 10:34.90. Milena Glusac of Fallbrook slipped past Rothman with 500 meters to go to place second in 10:33.57.

Hartman trailed San Luis Obispo’s James Menon by 12 meters with a lap remaining but sprinted past the Tiger senior with 250 meters to go, running his final 400 in 62 seconds to clock a personal-best 8:58.38.

Menon, who finished third in last year’s state meet, was second in 9:03.55. Hart’s Billy Dixon ran a personal-best 9:10.97 in finishing eighth.

Westlake’s Crystal Brownlee put the shot a personal-best 45 feet 4 inches on her second attempt to finish second by one-quarter inch to Pittsburg’s Mika Hilaire.

Cornell Hill of Taft and Canyon’s Rob Landtiser finished third in their respective events. Hill leaped a region-leading 24-4 1/4 on his third attempt in the long jump and Landtiser clocked 38.32 in the 300 intermediate hurdles.

Leonice Brown, who failed to show up for Friday’s preliminary races and was scratched from the 100 meters, made it to Cerritos on Saturday to anchor San Fernando’s 400 relay team to fourth in 42.01, the fastest time in the region this year.

And in the girls’ 1,600, Fillmore’s Nikki Shaw watched from about 10 meters back as Becky Spies of Livermore made an incredible surge with 600 meters left to pull away for the win.

Spies shot past Glusac and built about a 10-meter lead, which she extended to about 15 at the finish in winning comfortably in a nation-leading 4:45.11.

Shaw was second in a personal-best 4:49.01.