Mortensen Steams Past Loaded 1,600 Field

The Kim Mortensen personal-best train barreled through the Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High on Saturday night and left some of the nation’s best distance runners gasping in its wake.

Mortensen, the 1995 national cross-country champion for Thousand Oaks High, had run 4 minutes 53.27 seconds in the mile in February and 10:17.0 in the 3,200 meters in March, but those performances took a back seat to two superb 1,600-meter efforts Saturday.

First, the UCLA-bound Lancer won the open 1,600 in a meet record of 4:44.9.

Then she ran a 4:44.2 anchor leg in the distance medley relay 2 1/2 hours later to bring Thousand Oaks from 12th to second with a time of 12:02.84.

East High of Salt Lake City won in 11:53.85 to move to sixth on the all-time national list, with the Lancers moving to sixth on the all-time state list.

Mortensen’s time in the open 1,600 was the fastest in the nation this year and moved her to fourth on the all-time region list.

“You ran a perfect race. A perfect race,” Thousand Oaks distance Coach Jack Farrell told Mortensen.

Mortensen’s time, which topped the previous meet record of 4:47.78 set by Julia Stamps of Santa Rosa last year, was doubly impressive because she led from start to finish and ran away from a superb field that included seven runners who had run under five minutes.

Annie Ebiner of Glendora St. Lucy’s finished second in 4:47.5 and Kristen Gordon of Concord Carondelet was third in 4:49.3. Shaluinn Fullove of Louisville was eighth in a school record of 5:00.6.

After clocking 70.3 for the first 400 and 2:22.9 at 800, Mortensen broke the race open on the third lap and came through the 1,200 in 3:35.0.

“I really tried to focus on the third lap,” she said. “I didn’t want it to get away from me. I figured the last lap would take care of itself.”

It did as Mortensen clocked 69.9 on the final circuit and repelled a late charge by Ebiner.

“I’m very surprised,” she said. “We talked about [running] 4:48. I was thinking I’ll try for that, but I really didn’t know if I could run that.”

While Mortensen reaffirmed her status as one of the top distance runners in the nation, Miguel Fletcher of Alemany was making a successful debut on the national stage.

Fletcher, a sophomore, had run state-leading times of 10.47 in the 100 and 21.44 in the 200 earlier this season, but he knew he needed to perform well at Arcadia to stamp himself as one of the top high school sprinters in the nation.

He accomplished that by winning the 100 in 10.68 and finishing second in the 200 in a personal best of 21.24.

Fletcher’s 100 time wasn’t supremely fast, but it came into a 1.13 meter-per-second head wind and gave him a victory over a field that included second-place Vince Williams (10.71) of San Diego University City and fourth-place Bryan Harrison (10.83) of Roswell, Ga.

Williams finished fourth in the 100 in last year’s State championships and Harrison was third as a sophomore at Dana Hills. On Saturday, Fletcher got out of the blocks ahead of both of them and held off a late charge by Williams.

“He might have been coming on me a little at the end,” Fletcher said of the 100. “I was really just trying to relax and hold my form. I got what I came here for. I just wanted to win.”

Fletcher ran the turn well in the 200, but he was unable to hold off Adrian Logan (21.09) of Upland in the homestretch.

Although Fletcher and Mortensen were the only individual winners from the region in the invitational races, several other athletes turned in solid performances.

Ronney Jenkins of Hueneme set a Ventura County record of 24 feet 9 inches to finish third in the boys’ long jump.

Jenkins’ mark, which moved him to third on the all-time region list, broke the previous Ventura County record of 24-3 1/2 set by Lawrence Nelson of Simi Valley in 1985.

Julie Harris of Canyon set a school record of 10:58.95 to place fourth in the girls’ 3,200.