Wilson’s Strategy Pays Off : Track and field: Agoura High runner turns in strong performance to win 1,600 meters and advance to state meet.

Ryan Wilson of Agoura High had hoped that a low-key racing schedule during the first half of the season would translate into a strong finish at the end.

Wilson, who has signed a national letter of intent with Arkansas, was a fifth-place finisher in the 1,600 at last year’s state meet, but acknowledges that he was merely going through the motions because of burnout at the end of the season.

But at Friday’s Southern Section Masters Meet at Cerritos College, Wilson led from start to finish to win the boys’ 1,600 in a ’93 state-leading time of 4 minutes 12.82 seconds.

Marion Jones of Thousand Oaks also advanced to next week’s state meet, winning the 100, 200 and long jump.

Jones, the three-time defending state champion in the 100 and 200, won those events with yearly national-leading marks of 11.31 and 23.00, respectively.

She was also the leading qualifier in the long jump with a leap of 20 feet 7 1/4 inches and ran a scorching 52.8-second anchor leg on the Lancers’ 1,600 relay team that finished sixth in a season best of 3:58.20.

The top five finishers in each event qualify for next week’s state meet at Cerritos.

Wilson, the 1992 state Division II cross-country champion, timed 60.1 seconds for the first 400, clocked 2:04.3 at the 800 and 3:09.8 at the 1,200. Eric Dunn of Arroyo Grande pulled up to Wilson’s shoulder with 300 meters left, but the Charger senior launched into a long drawn-out kick to win easily.

“I haven’t really run a lot of (1,600s) this season and that was by design,” Wilson said. “I concentrated on the 800 and ran a lot of legs on the (1,600) and distance medley relays so I would be fresh for the 1,600 at the end of the season.”

Dunn finished second in 4:15.34 with Hart’s Brett Strahan and Gavin Klinger placing third (4:17.08) and fifth (4:18.67), respectively.

Ty Gaines of Palmdale and Cheaza Figueroa of Quartz Hill were the leading qualifiers in the boys’ and girls’ triple jump. Gaines bounded a state-leading 50-1 3/4.

Figueroa set a region record of 39-8 1/2, breaking the previous best of 39-2 3/4 set by Margi Gilles of Burbank in 1988. Figueroa also finished second in the 100 high hurdles (14.52) and in the long jump with a season-best 19-1 1/4.

Jeremy Fischer of Camarillo and Jesse Stern of Harvard-Westlake were other area winners. Fischer cleared 7-0 in the high jump, marking the sixth meet this season in which he has cleared at least 7-0.

Stern negotiated 15-4 in the pole vault.

Margarito Casillas of Hoover is not known for his kick, but the Arizona-bound senior made up about 15 meters on Dan Minami of Peninsula in the final straightaway of the boys’ 3,200 to finish second in a personal best of 9:04.14. Minami timed 9:04.13.

Jason Medearis of Hart was a double qualifier, finishing third in the 300 intermediate hurdles in a region-leading 38.02, and fourth in the 110 highs in 14.53.

In the boys’ 800, Isaac Turner of Burbank and Paul De La Cerda of Hart advanced to the state meet by finishing second and fourth. Turner ran a personal best of 1:53.86, and De La Cerda timed 1:54.69.

Karen Bockel of Nordhoff and Gabriela Rodriguez of Oxnard finished second and fourth in the girls’ 3,200. Bockel timed 10:48.53, and Rodriguez ran a personal best of 10:52.34.

Crystal Brownlee of Westlake placed second in the shotput at 45-11, and Nada Kawar of Crescenta Valley finished third at 44-6 3/4.

Track Notes

The Agoura High girls’ track and field team, which finished third in last week’s Southern Section Division I championships behind Long Beach Poly and Long Beach Wilson, was awarded second after Karen Vigilant of Long Beach Wilson was disqualified for competing in five events in the Division I prelims. Section rules state that no athlete can compete in more than four events in each meet. Long Beach Wilson lost 30 points because of the violation. The adjusted scores gave Long Beach Poly 76 points, followed by Agoura with 42 and Long Beach Wilson with 37.