Godina Gives L.A. Invitational a Booster Shot

Angela Williams of Chino High began the 1998 indoor track and field season at the L.A. Invitational in the same impressive fashion that she ended the 1997 outdoor campaign.

Last August, Williams won the 100 meters and ran the first leg on the victorious 400 relay team at the Pan American Junior Games in Havana to cap a season that earned her Track & Field News magazine’s national high school athlete of the year award.

On Saturday at the Sports Arena, she tied the national high school indoor record in the 50-meter dash with a time of 6.32 seconds.

The USC-bound Williams blew away a quality field in tying a mark that was set by Aleisha Latimer of Palmer High in Colorado Springs last year and was .04 seconds faster that UCLA freshman Shakedia Jones ran in winning the women’s race.

“At first I wasn’t thinking about the record,” Williams said. “I just wanted to come out here and start the season with a good race. But then I talked to my coach and he said, ‘You’re in great shape. There’s no reason to hold back. Just go for it.’ ”

The 5-foot-1 1/2 Williams did as told by exploding out of the blocks and driving all the way through the finish line.

“I just focused on lifting my arms and getting up [the track],” Williams said. “I would like to have broken the record instead of tying it, but it’s early in the season.”

Williams would like to become the first high school girl to break 11 seconds in the 100 meters without the aid of wind during the upcoming outdoor season. Before that, she’ll try to win the 60 and the 200 for the third consecutive year in the National Scholastic Indoor championships in Roxbury, Mass., next month.

“I’d like to set [national high school] records in both,” Williams said. “Last year, I missed by like a tenth of a second in each race.”

Van Mounts and April Burton of Bakersfield, Ricky Duff of Manual Arts, Allison Knode of Kingsburg and Darrell Rideaux of Long Beach Poly turned in some of the other notable performances in the high school portion of the meet.

Mounts, the defending state champion in the boys’ shotput, won that event with a put of 65 feet 5 inches.

Burton, the runner-up in the girls’ discus in the state championships last year, took that event at 148-3 and the shotput at 42-5 1/2.

Duff won the boys’ high jump with a personal best of 6-10 after scoring 20 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in Manual Arts’ 52-46 victory over Palisades on Friday night.

“It was weird,” Duff said of competing in his first indoor meet. “There’s not that much running room out there and people kept cutting in front of me when I was trying to jump.”

Knode won the girls’ pole vault by clearing 11 feet and Rideaux won the football-player 50 meters in 5.85.