No Record but Mortensen Puts Stamps in Scrapbook

The queen is dead.

Long live the queen.

Kim Mortensen of Thousand Oaks High dethroned Julia Stamps of Santa Rosa as the female monarch of U.S. high school distance running Saturday with a runaway victory in the 3,200 meters in the State track and field championships at Cerritos College.

The UCLA-bound Mortensen was one of two local winners as Chaminade junior Liz Giltner cleared a career-best of 5 feet 10 in the high jump to become the Eagles’ first state champion.

Mortensen set a stunning national record of 9 minutes 48.59 seconds in last week’s Southern Section Masters Meet at Cerritos, but some of the 11,675 in attendance Saturday still favored two-time defending champion Stamps, a junior who had run a career-best 10:12.20 two weeks ago.

Their opinions probably stemmed from the fact that Stamps defeated Mortensen in four cross-country races last fall before Mortensen won the national title in a race that defending champion Stamps failed to finish after battling a cold earlier in the week.

There was no question about who was better this time.

Mortensen broke away from Stamps with 1,100 meters left and rolled to a 9:52.80 clocking. The time shattered the previous meet record of 10:08.14 set by Cory Schubert of San Jose Del Mar in 1983. It was the second-fastest outdoor time ever by a high school runner and the third-fastest indoors or out.

Stamps, who was attempting to become the second runner to win three consecutive 3,200 titles in the State championships, placed second in 10:15.13.

“I felt more pressure in this race than in the others,” said Mortensen, who spent the morning shopping with her mother to get her mind off the race. “I had some butterflies beforehand, but there was nothing I could do but be mentally strong in the race.

“I said to myself, ‘I’ve done all the work. I’ve done everything I can physically, but there’s no way I can get any more energy from somewhere.’ ”

What she had was plenty as her first 1,600 of 4:54.7 was four-tenths of a second faster than last week. Stamps clung to her shoulder at that point, but when Mortensen came through 2,400 meters in 7:23.7--which was 1.3 seconds ahead of her record pace--Stamps had begun to fade.

Although the pre-race pressure and warm, humid conditions appeared to take a toll on Mortensen on the last two laps, she and Thousand Oaks distance Coach Jack Farrell were ecstatic about the victory and didn’t care about a missed record.

“We didn’t want her chasing any records,” Farrell said. “We just talked about going out and running a good pace and getting into a rhythm like she has all season.”

Will Bernaldo of Nordhoff could relate to Farrell.

Bernaldo entered the boys’ 3,200 with the sixth-fastest time (9:14.22) in the field, but his pre-race goal was to run 68 seconds per lap for a cumulative time of 9:04.

He nearly worked the strategy to perfection, leading for 3,140 meters before succumbing to the finishing kick of Yreka’s Aaron Gillen.

Gillen clocked 9:03.96 and Bernaldo lowered his career-best for the fourth race in a row with a school record of 9:04.18.

“He just had a gear I didn’t have,” said Bernaldo, who dove across the finish line in his effort to win. “He went to his gear and I slipped out of mine.”

Freshman Bridget Pearson of Hoover was the other second-place finisher from the region, clearing 11 feet 4 inches in the girls’ pole vault.

Michelle Perry of Quartz Hill, Shaluinn Fullove of Louisville and Tara Gregory of Crescenta Valley set personal bests in the girls’ meet.

Perry, a junior, clocked 42.68 to finish third in the 300 lows and 14.37 to place fifth in the 100 highs. Taft sophomore Frances Santin finished sixth in the 300 hurdles in 43.99 while Perry’s time moved her to second on the all-time region list behind the 42.25 of Saugus’ Audrey Williams in 1981.

Fullove, who will walk on at Stanford in the fall, timed 4:58.38 to place third in the 1,600 and sophomore Gregory finished fifth in the 800 in 2:14.24.

In other events, a tired-looking Miguel Fletcher placed seventh in the boys’ 200 in 21.75 and eighth in the 100 at 10.86. He also ran the anchor leg on the Indians’ 1,600 relay team that finished seventh in 3:18.77.