Joyner-Kersee Staying on Fast Track : Running: A day after setting hurdles record at altitude, she has another sterling time at the Sports Arena.

Twenty-four hours after running the fastest time ever by an American woman in the 50-meter hurdles at Reno, all Jackie Joyner-Kersee could do Saturday night in the Sunkist Invitational was run the second fastest.

She was not disappointed. Considering that Reno is about 5,000 feet above sea level, the higher the better for runners in short distances, her time of 6.82 seconds before a Sports Arena crowd of 11,841 was almost as impressive as her 6.67 of the night before. Both were faster than the previous American record of 6.84 that she shared for two years with Kim McKenzie.

Linda Tolbert-Goode, who finished only one-hundredth of a second behind Joyner-Kersee in the 60-meter hurdles nine days ago in the Millrose Games at New York, was no challenge in this race with a second-place time of 6.97.

“This is about the fastest I’ve ever felt,” said Joyner-Kersee, who has been working on her starts during training at UCLA’s Drake Stadium with Gail Devers, the Olympic and world champion in the 100 meters.

Joyner-Kersee is running so fast that, in order to avoid upsetting her timing over the hurdles, her coach/husband, Bob Kersee, ordered her to set up her blocks 31 centimeters behind the start line Saturday night.

She argued, but, as usual, he won. And, as usual, so did she.

It was not a night for upsets, except for perhaps a slight one in the men’s 50 meters. Mike Marsh, attempting to regain the form that carried him to the gold medal in 200 meters in the 1992 Summer Olympics after injuries the last two years, barely beat Jon Drummond, ranked third in the world last year in the 100 meters, to the tape. Both were timed in 5.73.

“I’m going out to make a great comeback,” Marsh said.

Mozambique’s Maria Mutola, ranked No. 1 in the world last year in the 800 meters and unbeaten in 32 consecutive races at various middle distances since 1992, won at 880 yards in 2:01.05. Although her time did not approach the meet record of 2:00.21 that she set last year, it was hardly pedestrian considering that no one pushed her. Canadian Rita Paulaviciene’s second-place time was 2:03.58.

Mark Crear and Robert Reading, two former NCAA champions from USC who ranked third and fifth, respectively, in the world last year in the 110-meter hurdles, met in the men’s 50-meter hurdles, with Crear winning in 6.50 to Reading’s second-place 6.62.

Morocco’s Said Aouita, who held world records at five distances between 1985 and ‘89, did as well as expected in only his second race after three years off to recuperate from surgery on both calf muscles. He finished sixth in the men’s mile in 4:06.77. Ireland’s Niall Bruton won in 3:58.30, holding off Jason Pyrah, 3:58.43, at the finish line.

The only significant record was set even before the open events began at 6 p.m. In the girl’s pole vault, Melissa Price, a 17-year-old Kingsburg, Calif., High senior, broke her American record of 12 feet 1 1/2 with a jump of 12-2. She missed three times at 12-4.

In the first year that the women’s pole vault has been recognized for record purposes by the International Amateur Athletic Federation, China’s Sun Caiyun improved her world record Friday night in Berlin to 13-6 1/4, a height that Price said she believes is within her reach.

“My goal for the next month is to clear 13 feet,” she said. “I think I can do 14 or 15 feet eventually. The women’s world-record holder has been vaulting for five years now. It took Sergei Bubka 20 years to reach his peak. I’ve been in it for only two years.”

Predictably, the precocious prep athletes competing in open events had difficulties, none more so than Bell Gardens High junior Michael Granville. After his time in the high school 500 meters last year bettered the open winner’s by a second, Granville was invited to test himself against the veterans this year. He never had a chance, falling on the first lap and finishing last in a field of five in 1:04.60. Danny Harris won in 56.58.

Santa Rosa’s Julia Stamps set a national indoor record for high school sophomores in the women’s mile with a time of 4:46.73, but she also carried away a ninth-place finish in a field of 12 and a cut on her right shin after being spiked. “I’m not used to running with the pack,” she said. Sarah Thorsett won in 4:38.64.

Canyon Springs High junior Bryan Howard finished fourth in the men’s 50 in 5.81, far behind Marsh and Drummond but ahead of Sam Jefferson, who ranked seventh in the United States last year.