Kurtela Boosts Anteaters to Relay Victory

UC Irvine’s Pam Kurtela took the baton from Lana Banks in the 1,600-meter relay, trailing Cal State Long Beach by 10 meters and facing a strong headwind on the backstretch.

She beat both.

Kurtela’s 57.2-second split on the relay’s third leg helped Irvine overcome Long Beach at the Nike Irvine Invitational Saturday at the Irvine track stadium.

The Anteater team of freshman Andrea Dean, senior Banks, Kurtela and freshman Michelle Merritt won in a season-best 3 minutes 56.34 seconds, the third fastest time in the Big West Conference this year. Long Beach was second in 4:02.05.

It was the end of a long day for Kurtela, a junior from Los Alamitos. Besides competing in the 1,600 relay, she finished third in the 200 (24.7 meters), second in the 400 (56.69 seconds) and ran a leg on Irvine’s second-place 400 relay (46.89 seconds).

The 1,600 relay was her best race, as she made up the 10 meters in a 10 to 15 m.p.h. headwind along the backstretch. She had the lead by the far turn, then turned it over to Merritt, who ran a solid anchor leg.

“The wind was very tough,” Kurtela said. “But (sprints coach) Jim Hiserman told me to lean into it and cut through it.

“You get a lot of momentum chasing someone down, especially when it’s a relay. You’re doing it for the team and not just for yourself.”

Irvine Coach Vince O’Boyle had to reshuffle the relay lineup, replacing sophomore Yvonne LaVallee, who was ill, with Dean. O’Boyle said he was pleased with the team’s effort.

Dean’s solid opening leg left O’Boyle with an option for the Big West championships May 7-8 at Irvine.

“Now I have to make a decision to make on who to put on that relay team,” O’Boyle said.

Other Irvine winners were Banks in the 100 (12.43) and Jade Preato in the 5,000 (17:56.01).

Another top performer was former Anteater Buffy Rabbitt, a five-time All-American in cross country and track.

Rabbitt, competing for Nike Coast, won the 1,500 in 4:20.76 and finished second in the 800 to Arizona State’s Sharette Garcia in 2:11.84. Garcia won in 2:06.89.

Other results:

--Buena Park High junior Carrie Garritson, sitting out the high school season after transferring from Sunny Hills, finished fourth out of nine runners in the 3,000 meters in 10:13.36.

--France’s Elsa Devassoigne, who reached the 1992 Olympic 400 semifinals, won the 200 meters in 24.11.

--Orange Coast College’s Leanne Kazmer won her 400 hurdles heat in 1:05.61, but finished fifth overall.

Meet notes

The 110 high hurdles will be one of the top races at today’s Nike Irvine men’s meet, which starts with the field events at 10 a.m. today at the UC Irvine track stadium. Toni Li, former NCAA indoor champion, and former USC hurdler Robert Reading, the NCAA runner-up last year, are expected to compete. The running events are scheduled for a noon start. . . . Tiffany Burt, a distance runner from Agoura, signed a letter of intent with Irvine this weekend, O’Boyle said. Burt is one of the top three runners at Agoura, the top-ranked high school cross country team in the nation by Harrier Magazine.