Mt. SAC Relays Again Lure Top Track Athletes

World-class and local track athletes will descend on Walnut this weekend for the 34th annual Mt. San Antonio College Relays.

Long-jumper Mike Powell, sprinter/long-jumper Carl Lewis, hurdler Edwin Moses and sprinter Evelyn Ashford are among the athletes scheduled to compete when open competition begins Saturday.

Community college competition begins today, high school events will be held Friday and university and open events will be held Saturday.

Youth Days competition, involving about 4,000 athletes from grades three through nine, was held last week.

On track--Nigerian Davidson Ezinwa of Azusa Pacific ran the fastest time in the world this season and set an African record in winning the 100 meters in 9.91 seconds at the Meet of Champions at Azusa Pacific on Saturday.

Achieved despite a 2.32-meter-per-second head wind, Ezinwa’s mark ranks third on the all-time world performer list. Carl Lewis (9.86) and Leroy Burrell (9.88) of the United States are ahead of Ezinwa.

Ezinwa, the 1990 state champion at Mt. San Antonio College, will run in the 200 meters at the Mt. SAC Relays on Saturday.

Fast finish: Angel Martinez of San Gabriel High was named outstanding athlete in the boys’ competition at last weekend’s Arcadia Invitational track meet.

Martinez, the state cross-country champion, held off Theo Molla of Tucson (Ariz.) University High to win the 3,200 meters in 9 minutes 2.82 seconds.

“I was getting really tight and I knew that he was right behind me,” Martinez told Lonnie White of The Times. “I had slowed down, but when I heard the crowd and saw him coming, I just took off.”

Martinez also ran the anchor leg of the distance medley to help San Gabriel win that event.

Good showing--Matt Ebiner of West Covina placed 19th in the U.S. Olympic Men’s Marathon Trials in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday.

Ebiner, 31, a former assistant cross-country and track coach at Mt. SAC who placed 77th in the 1988 trials, covered the 26.2-mile course in 2 hours 21 minutes 13 seconds.

Downhill racer--Martin Garcia of Temple City won the bronze medal in the intermediate downhill event at the first Special Olympics National Skiing Championships last week at Steamboat Springs, Colo.

Garcia, 29, was one of 135 athletes from 15 states who competed in the championships.

Garcia qualified for the national competition by winning the giant slalom and the slalom and finishing second in the downhill at the California Special Olympics Skiing championships at Lake Tahoe in March.

Garcia also has played basketball and volleyball in the San Gabriel Valley Special Olympics and works as a volunteer equipment manager for Rosemead High.

Honor roll--Five San Gabriel Valley-area high school teams were among 24 Southern Section teams that were honored for their academic achievements last week at Anaheim Stadium.

The La Puente and Rosemead badminton teams, the Pasadena Poly football and girls’ basketball teams and the Claremont boys’ soccer team were recognized by the Angels, Ford Motor Co., the Murdy Foundation and the Southern Section for cumulative grade-point averages during the fall semester.

Riding to the Rescue--For the second consecutive year, injuries to quarterbacks have given Mike Johnson a chance to shine for the World League of American Football’s San Antonio Riders.

In Saturday’s 23-20 overtime victory over the Sacramento Surge, the former Baldwin Park High standout set five team records--passes (40), completions (24), yards (250), consecutive completions (8) and passes in a single game without an interception (40).

Making Johnson’s feat even more impressive was the fact that he began the game throwing eight consecutive incomplete passes.

A week before, Johnson relieved Brad Goebel, who had sprained his left ankle late in the first half. Johnson went on to complete 12 of 30 passes for 200 yards in a 9-3 victory over the New York/New Jersey Knights.

Staff Writer Steven Herbert contributed to this notebook.