Jones Posts 2 National-Best Sprint Times

Don’t be fooled by the times.

Marion Jones of Thousand Oaks High ran slower in winning the girls’ 100- and 200-meter dashes in the Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High on Saturday night than she did last year, but the ease with which she won left no doubt that she is capable of running much faster before the season is over.

In the 100, she got off to a good start before visibly easing up in the final five meters to finish in 11.51 seconds.

In the 200, she ran a very strong curve, then concentrated on maintaining her form to the finish line to time 23.43.

Both times were the fastest high school girls’ performances in the nation this year.

“I felt good,” said Jones, the female athlete of the meet. “This was my first 100 of the season, so I’m happy with the time. I’ve been concentrating on the 200 and 400 all season to build strength, so I just wanted to run the 100 and see how I bounced back in the 200.”

Jones ran 11.38 in the 100 and 22.87 in the 200 in the Arcadia Invitational last year, but she was spurred on in those races by Zundra Feagin of Cocoa, Fla., Track & Field News’ high school girl athlete of the year in 1990.

“Last year, I had someone to shoot for,” Jones said. “This year, I just wanted to run fast.”

In addition to the 100 and 200, Jones ran on two relay teams. She anchored Thousand Oaks’ 400-meter relay team, which finished fifth in the invitational race in a school-record 47.88, and ran a 56.5-second first leg on the Lancers’ 1,600-meter relay team, which finished fourth in the invitational race in 3:59.91

The most exciting race might have been the girls’ distance medley relay, in which Huntington Beach Edison ran a nation-leading time of 12 minutes 9.37 seconds to edge Agoura by 0.02 seconds.

Shelley Taylor of Edison, who had won the 1,600 in 4:51.98 earlier in the meet, ran a 4:53.1 anchor leg in the 1,600 to nip Agoura freshman Amy Skieresz at the finish line.

Several athletes notched region-leading marks in their respective events.

Jeff Wilson of Newbury Park finished second in the boys’ 1,600 in 4 minutes 12.44 seconds, and Nikki Shaw of Fillmore placed second in the girls’ 1,600 in 4:53.85.

Margarito Casillas of Hoover and Maribella Aparicio of Fillmore placed third in the boys’ and girls’ 3,200 meters.

Casillas, who finished fifth in the Kinney national cross-country championships in December, timed 9:08.93, and Aparicio, seventh in the Kinney meet, timed 10:46.16.

Dan Minami of Peninsula led the field through a quick opening 400 meters of 64.8 in the boys’ 3,200, but the pace got progressively slower thereafter.

Casillas led at the 1,600 in 4:34.8 and maintained the lead for the next 600 meters before Angel Martinez of San Gabriel took charge. “I knew I had to run a fast second mile to make him hurt,” Casillas said of Martinez. “I tried to push it, but I wasn’t too successful.”

Martinez, who had finished fourth in the Kinney cross-country meet, timed a national-leading 9:02.82.

Camarillo sophomore Jeremy Fisher placed second in the boys’ high jump with a best of 6 feet 8 inches. The mark equals the best in the region this year.