RUNNING / JOHN ORTEGA : Burnham Aims to Get Untracked After Series of Misfortune

For someone who advanced to the semifinals of the women’s 100-meter dash in the 1988 U.S. Olympic trials after her junior year at Rio Mesa High, Angela Burnham of UCLA has set modest short-term goals.

“I want to stay healthy and complete a whole season,” Burnham said. “I’d like to make it back to the NCAA championships and do something.”

Burnham was Track & Field News’ national female high school athlete of the year in 1988 and ’89 after winning state titles in the 100 and 200 as a junior and senior. With personal bests of 11.28 seconds in the 100, 23.45 in the 200 and 54.09 in the 400, she was heavily recruited before choosing UCLA over USC and Texas.

She had a solid, if unspectacular, freshman season for the Bruins, timing 11.60 in the 100 and 23.55 in the 200. She advanced to the semifinals of the 200 in the NCAA championships.

Burnham also ran a leg on UCLA’s 400 and 1,600 relay teams, which finished third and fourth in the NCAA meet.

Since then, however, she has been plagued by injuries, illnesses, and most recently, an auto accident in January that limited her to four meets and a best of 24.94 (wind-aided) in the 200 this season.

“It’s been very frustrating,” Burnham said. “I felt like I was ready to have a good season this year, and then I got in the accident.”

Although Burnham suffered a strained back, facial cuts and bruised ribs when the car she was driving skidded off the road and hit a tree during a rainstorm in Oxnard, she hoped to resume training within a couple of weeks.

But UCLA Coach Bobby Kersee figured Burnham could use more time to let her body heal, and two weeks off became two months. Because of the brevity of Burnham’s season, UCLA probably will petition the Pacific 10 Conference for a redshirt season on Burnham’s behalf. Burnham, 20, appears intent on competing for several more years despite her tribulations at the collegiate level.

“I guess it’s time to start looking forward to Atlanta,” she said. “That’s where the next Olympic Games are, right?”

Trivia question: Which Valley-area city has produced the most state high school sprint champions?

Counting down: Like the annoying, fuzzy pink rabbit wearing sunglasses and beating the drum in those battery commercials, Mark Covert just keeps going, and going, and going, and going.

Covert, the cross-country and track coach at Antelope Valley College, will have run at least three miles a day for 24 consecutive years July 23 if nothing unforeseen happens.

Covert, who finished seventh in the marathon in the 1972 U.S. Olympic trials, will have run about 103,700 miles, an average of 11.8 miles a day, during the streak, which began a few months after the end of the Tet offensive--the turning point in the Vietnam War.

“At this point, the streak is a lot of fun,” said Covert, the father of four. “When I look at the numbers, I just have to smile. They’re just phenomenal. They’re crazy.”

Covert’s streak, which will reach 8,766 days on the 23rd, is the longest in the nation, according to track expert Joe Henderson. It also is second longest in the world behind Ron Hill, a former Olympic marathoner for Great Britain whose streak reached 27 years last December and, like that rabbit, is still going.

Well-stocked: Moorpark College should have a potent men’s 4 x 800-meter relay team next season, based on the credentials of several runners who are expected to enter the school in the fall. Joel Lopez, the Southern Section 1-A Division champion for Fillmore High, has run 1 minute 52.56 seconds.

Dorian Valdez, the Marmonte League champion for Simi Valley, has timed 1:54.14, and Eric Steele, who placed fifth in the Marmonte League finals for Westlake, has run 1:57.0. Ryan Luce, formerly of Royal, is a 1,600 specialist but has a best of 1:59.0 in the 800.

“It’ll be nice to have some distance runners,” Moorpark Coach Doni Green said. “That’s something we didn’t have much of this year.”

Trivia answer: Athletes from Glendale high schools have won 11 state titles in the sprint events. Frank Wykoff of Glendale High (1927-28), and Hoover’s John Bradley (1947-48) and Forrest Beaty (1961-62) each won three titles during their prep careers.