HIGH SCHOOL TRACK NATIONAL SCHOLASTIC MEET : Nation’s Best to Compete at Birmingham

Several of the nation’s top track and field athletes will be on display in the national scholastic championships at Birmingham High this weekend.

Athletes from 43 states are expected to compete in the meet, which begins today with qualifying rounds in the running events and ends Saturday with finals in 31 events.

Heading the list of national leaders in the girls’ competition are high jumper Amy Acuff of Corpus Christi, Tex., and middle-distance runner Jowanna McMullen of Brooklyn, N.Y. On the boys’ side, high jumper Jason Woodard of Norfolk, Va., pole vaulter Lawrence Johnson of Chesapeake, Va., and triple jumper Andre Scott of Sanford, Fla., are among the standouts.

National record-holder Marion Jones of Thousand Oaks, who Saturday won state titles in the 100 and 200 meters for the third consecutive season, will bypass this weekend’s meet to focus on the U. S. Olympic trials in New Orleans, which begin June 19.

But that doesn’t mean the competition will be without record-setting athletes. Acuff, a junior, holds the national high school record of 6 feet 3 inches in the girls’ high jump. She will be challenged by Corissa Yasen of Coeur d’Alene, Ida., who has cleared 6-2.

McMullen, a freshman, has run 2 minutes 8.64 for 800 meters and leads a field that includes two others who have run faster than 2:10.

Woodard, a senior, has cleared 7-4 in the high jump. He will be challenged by Mike Ledet of Morgan City, La., who has jumped 7-3.

Johnson, also a senior, has a best of 17-6 in the pole vault, and sophomore Scott has bounded 51-3 1/4 in the triple jump.

The boys’ 800 might feature the deepest field of the meet with nine entrants who have run 1:52.57 or faster. Milton Hughes of Stockton Stagg (1:49.64) and Bryan Woodward of Long Beach Poly (1:50.22) are among the expected starters.

Hughes and Woodward finished second and third in the state championships.

The meet will mark the final competition of the season for pole vaulter Jesse Stern of Harvard-Westlake, and two-milers Fernando Mendoza of Channel Islands and Margarito Casillas of Hoover.

Stern, a junior, was fourth in last week’s state meet and has a best of 15-4. Mendoza, who will run at Fresno State next fall, was fifth in the state at 3,200 meters with a personal best of 9:06.78, and Casillas, a junior, has run 9:05.79 this spring.

Agoura’s Kay Nekota, who missed the Southern Section championships because she had the misfortune of competing in the Marmonte League, will have a chance to redeem herself in the mile Saturday.

Nekota, with times of 5 minutes 0.98 seconds in the 1,600 meters and 11:07.83 in the 3,200 in the league finals, failed to place in the top three and did not advance to the championship meets.

She limped noticeably after the Marmonte League meet last month because of bruises on the balls of her feet, but Agoura Coach Bill Duley said Nekota is raring to go.

Agoura teammates Amy Skieresz and Kristie Camp will join Nekota in the mile field at Birmingham.

Skieresz, a freshman, finished third in the 1,600 in the state championships. Camp, a junior, placed eighth in the 800.

Charger senior Laura Hayward will run in the two-mile, as will Fillmore junior Maribella Aparicio and Channel Islands senior Veronica Barajas, the runners-up in the 3,200 in the state meet and Southern Section 3-A Division meet, respectively.

Preliminary rounds of the running events start at 7 tonight.

Saturday’s finals will begin with the boys’ and girls’ discus at 1:30 p.m. The other field events will start at 3, followed by the running events at 3:30.