Mortensen, Giltner Win Big

One of them obliterated her personal best. The other tied hers.

But Kim Mortensen of Thousand Oaks High and Liz Giltner of Chaminade seemed equally pleased with their performances in the L.A. Invitational indoor track and field meet at the Sports Arena on Saturday.

Mortensen, who won the Foot Locker national cross-country championships in December, took more than seven seconds off her previous best to win the girls’ mile in 4 minutes 53.27 seconds.

Giltner, sixth in the high jump in the 1994 and ’95 State championships, won that event with a personal-best-equaling height of 5 feet 8 inches.

“I’m very surprised with the time,” Mortensen said after breaking five minutes for the first time. “I was just hoping for a time of 5:05 or around there. This is a time I was hoping to run at the end of the season . . . I’m going to have to reformulate some of my goals.”

Louisville’s Shaluinn Fullove lent a helping hand in Mortensen’s time as she led the field through the 440 in 71.3 before Mortensen took over just before the 880 (2:26.4).

The Lancer senior wasn’t pushed during the second half of the race, but it didn’t seem to hurt her as she came through the 1,320 in 3:40.8 and finished with the fastest high school girls’ time in the nation this year.

Mortensen hadn’t raced since the national cross-country championships, but she didn’t feel any rustiness after running a 2:17.8 880 leg on a Lancer team that finished sixth in the two-mile relay earlier in the meet.

“That time helped my confidence and it helped to get out there and race and throw some elbows,” she said.

Giltner looked sharp in the high jump, clearing 5-4, 5-6 and 5-8 on her first attempts before missing three times at 5-10 1/4. She came very close to clearing that height on her third attempt, but brushed the bar off with her left leg.

“I’m extremely happy,” Giltner said. “I felt real light out there . . . I’m certainly looking forward to the rest of the season after this.”

Hoover freshman Bridget Pearson was the other local winner as she cleared 10-6 in the girls’ pole vault.

Pearson has a best of 10-10, which she set as an eighth-grader at Toll Junior High in Glendale last year.

Palmdale sophomore Kadrina Coffee was involved in two of the most-exciting races of the meet, finishing second to senior Lana Garner of San Diego Morse in the girls’ 500-yard dash and anchoring the Falcons to a thrilling come-from-behind victory in the second heat of the mile relay.

Garner, fourth in the 400 meters in last year’s State championships, outleaned Coffee at the finish of the 500 as both runners were credited with times of 1:07.8.

Coffee was 35 yards behind teams from Muir and Dorsey when she received the baton for the anchor leg of the mile relay, but she steadily closed the gap on the leaders and surged past them with 30 yards left in the race. Her 57.4 anchor leg gave Palmdale a time of 4:10.8 with Muir at 4:11.3 and Dorsey at 4:11.6.

Long Beach Poly won the first heat in 3:52.6, the fastest time ever by a U.S. high school team on a 160-yard track.

Cheree Hicks of Littlerock had performed poorly in last year’s meet, placing seventh in the shotput with a mark of 35-5, but she finished second Saturday at 40-0 1/2. The mark was only 2 1/2 inches off her personal best, set last year.

Hueneme’s Ronney Jenkins had a meet that he’d probably just as soon forget.

The Viking senior had capped his high school football career by rushing for a national record of 619 yards against Rio Mesa last fall, but he opened the track season with a thud.

First, he finished 10th in the long jump with a leap of 20-9, more than three feet short of his personal best of 24-1. He followed that with a strong opening leg in the 4 x 160-yard relay to help the Vikings place second in their heat, but was disqualified for a false start in the football 50-meter dash.