Mortensen Gets Personal, Outruns Field for Easy Victory

Kim Mortensen of Thousand Oaks High is not the runner she was during the cross-country season, when she won the national title.

She’s better.

Lancer Coach Jack Farrell came to that conclusion in recent weeks, and Saturday it was easy to see why as Mortensen won the girls’ 3,200 meters with a stunning time of 10 minutes 17 seconds in the Channel Coast Invitational at Camarillo High.

The UCLA-bound Mortensen had lowered her personal best to 4:53.27 in the mile in last month’s L.A. Invitational indoor meet at the Sports Arena, but her time Saturday was superior even to that.

It moved her to fourth on the all-time region list, it was the fastest time in the state--and second fastest in the country--this year and obliterated her personal best of 10:42.85 set last year.

On top of that, she did it virtually by herself as Canyon junior Julie Harris finished second in 11:21.4.

It was the second personal best of the meet for Harris, who earlier had won the 1,600 in 5:15.5. But Mortensen was so dominant that when she entered the homestretch for the final time, Harris was beginning her final lap on the 400-meter track.

“Our plan was to go out and run a quick-paced first [1,600] and then see if I could duplicate it,” Mortensen said. “But I never thought about running this fast.”

After coming through the first 1,600 in 5:10.4, Mortensen clocked 5:06.6 for the second half of the race.

Her lap-by-lap splits were a model of consistency, as she ran 76.2 for the first 400, followed by times of 77.8, 78.0, 78.4, 78.1, 78.3 and 77.9 before finishing in 72.3.

Her final 800 of 2:20.2 was only sixth-tenths of a second slower than she’d run to win the 800 earlier.

“I’m shocked that she ran this fast, especially after the 800,” Farrell said. “The 800 didn’t look real sharp. It was solid, but it didn’t look sharp. . . . I told her before the [3,200] that no one expects you to run 10:30 in the middle of March running all by yourself. I would have been happy with anything under 11 minutes.”

Camarillo senior Josh Hill entered Saturday’s meet looking for his first 6-foot-8 inch clearance in the high jump this season.

He got that, along with a victory over a quality field that included the Arroyo Grande duo of Mitch Naber (6-6) and Kevin Wilkinson (6-6).

Wilkinson and Naber, who placed first and second in last year’s Southern Section Division II championships, entered the meet with personal bests of 6-10 and 6-8, but Hill was the only one of them to clear 6-8 Saturday, equaling his personal best in the process.

“This is a big win for me,” said the Naval Academy-bound Hill. “Those guys have some good [personal records], so I’m happy.”

Sharika Higgins of Channel Islands, Adam Eyre of Agoura and Brock Diediker of Newbury Park were other local winners.

Higgins won the girls’ 100 and 200 with wind-aided times of 11.9 and 24.8 and took the long jump with a leap of 17-3 3/4.

Eyre timed 1:59.1 in the boys’ 800 and Diediker put the shot 50-3.