Valley’s Reed Sprints Into Spotlight at WSC Meet

Valley College sprinter Marcus Reed has probably already heard this advice. But in case he hasn’t, someone should tell him to forget basketball and stick with track and field.

Reed, a sophomore from Canoga Park High, played basketball and ran track for College of the Sequoias as a freshman before returning home to Southern California and focusing on track in his sophomore season.

The decision paid off Friday at the Western State Conference meet at Bakersfield College as Reed won the 100 and 200 meters, placed second in the long jump and ran the third legs for Valley’s 400- and 1,600-meter relay teams, which finished first and second.

Powered by Reed, Valley finished fifth in the men’s team standings with 71 points.

Bakersfield successfully defended its team title with a 223-point total, followed by Moorpark (198 1/2) and Glendale (141).

Moorpark--led by distance runner Deana Fuess--won the women’s title with 134 points, followed by Santa Barbara City (111), defending champion Valley (104 1/2) and Santa Monica City (102).

Fuess placed third in the 5,000 (19:24.70) on Tuesday, then won the 1,500 (4:49.98), was second in the 800 (2:22.68) and third in the 3,000 (11:10.33) on Friday.

“I wasn’t really that up for this meet,” Reed said after winning the 200 meters in a personal best of 21.05 seconds. “It was just a matter of making sure I finished in the top five in everything so I could move on to next week.”

The top five men and top six women in each event advanced to next Saturday’s Southern California prelims at Santa Barbara City College.

Reed began the meet by finishing second in the long jump with a leap of 24 feet 8 inches, then he teamed with Ruben Benitez, Russell Hester, and Kevin Maxie to win the 400 relay in 40.74.

In his first individual event on the track, Reed recorded a personal-best 10.37 in the 100 meters.

He closed out a long day in the 1,600 relay, in which Valley finished second to Moorpark, 3:12.46 to 3:12.56.

Moorpark received big performances from Phil Antoine, Bryan Krill and Dan Zorich to finish second in the men’s meet.

Antoine placed second in the 100 (10.57) and the 200 (21.17), ran the second leg for the Raiders’ 400 relay team--which finished second in 41.11--and anchored Moorpark to a come-from-behind victory over Valley in the 1,600 relay.

Krill won the 400 in a personal-best and school-record time of 47.42, placed third in the 200 in 21.61, and ran legs in both relays.

Zorich won the hammer throw Tuesday with a toss of 166-4, and placed second Friday in the discus (148-3) Friday.

Glendale’s Oved Aguirre, who won the 10,000 in 31:31.35 on Tuesday, took the 5,000 in 14:54.01 and finished second in the 1,500 in 3:56.09 on Friday.