Rio Mesa’s Jones Faces Stiff Test at Arcadia

Marion Jones of Oxnard Rio Mesa High is establishing herself as one of the best girls’ sprinters ever.

The 15-year-old sophomore already has a list of accomplishments, including last year’s State 100- and 200-meter dash titles and this year’s national indoor 200 meters title.

Jones added to her list last Saturday when she won the 100 meters at the Oakland Relays in 11.40 seconds, setting a national record for sophomores and 15-year-olds. Her time also was the eighth fastest in high school competition.

“Obviously, I am real happy with how she is running so far this season,” Rio Mesa track Coach Brian FitzGerald said. “She is running faster than I thought she would at this point of the season. It’s scary.”

Jones, who ran personal bests of 11.62 in the 100 meters and 23.70 in the 200 last season as a freshman, also won the 400 meters at Oakland in 54.66 and ran a 22.7 relay split in the 200 meters.

“Running 11.40 really surprised me,” Jones said. “I was planning on maybe an 11.56 or so, but I was a little hyped up for the race.”

Jones will get a chance to see how she matches up against the nation’s other top two sprinters, Zundra Feagin of Cocoa, Fla., and Teresa Foster of Shreveport, La., in Saturday’s 24th annual Arcadia High School Invitational track and field meet.

“I’ve been waiting for this meet for a while,” said Jones, who injured her ankle during a workout Monday but expects to be full strength for Arcadia. “I’m excited about this meet because of the competition.”

With the national high school federation records being 11.29 in the 100 meters (set by Barbara Bell of Ft. Worth in 1982), and 23.19 in the 200 meters (set by Sherrie Howard of Granada Hills Kennedy in 1980), Jones says that Arcadia may be the site of some record-breaking performances.

In last year’s meet, Jones defeated Feagin in the 100 and 200, but they both finished behind Inger Miller of Pasadena Muir, now a freshman at USC. However, since then, Feagin has been on a roll.

Last August, Feagin finished second in the 200 meters in the World Junior championships for 19-year olds and under in a time of 23.13, the sixth fastest national prep time ever. In March, she defeated Jones to win the national indoor 55-meters title and this spring, Feagin ran 11.58 in the 100 meters at the Florida Relays.

Another challenger for the nation’s top sprinter title is Foster, who won the national indoor 55 meters title in 1990 by defeating Feagin. Foster has personal best times of 11.5 and 23.75 meters in the 100 and 200 meters.

More Arcadia: The girls’ 400 meters also will have a defending State champion competing with Janice Nichols of Bakersfield, who has a best of 53.89. She will meet Allison Dring of San Diego Mt. Carmel, who has run 54.29, and Marcia Rush of Philadelphia William Penn, whose best time is 55.63.

In the girls’ 800 meters, Becky Spies of Livermore, the defending State and this year’s national indoor champion, will run against Nicole Teter of Cottonwood West Valley, State runner-up last year, and Celeste Buchanan of San Jose Mitty, who finished third in last year’s State meet.

Twila Sims of Lompoc and Tanya Smith of Cordova will meet in the girls’ 100- and 300-meter low hurdles. Sims, the 1989 state 300-meter low hurdles champion, has best times of 14.35 and 41.76 in the two events. She will challenge Smith, who has run 13.99 and 42.4.

In the boys’ competition, Napolean Kaufman of Lompoc will lead a strong field of sprinters in the 100 and 200 meters. Kaufman, who will play football at Washington in the fall, is defending state 100- and 200-meters champion with personal best times of 10.56 and 21.15.

Colorado-bound tailback Lamont Warren of Dorsey will head the 400-meters field, which includes Gerald McCladdie of Compton Centennial and Derrick Shepard of San Francisco Lincoln. Warren, defending Arcadia champion, has a best of 47.51, while McCladdie has run 47.44 and Shepard 47.58.

Prep Notes

The Southern California Prep Basketball All-Star Classic between Southern and City Section teams will be today at the Forum with the girls’ game beginning at noon, followed by the boys’ game at 2:30 p.m. . . . John Mihaljevich has been named the boys’ basketball coach at the new Peninsula High. Mihaljevich currently is the basketball coach at Palos Verdes. . . . Empire League principals have awarded the Los Alamitos High baseball team a victory over Anaheim Loara after reviewing videotape of last week’s game that was suspended after a bench-clearing fight. Los Alamitos led, 7-4, when the game was suspended. An unnamed Loara player has been suspended from the team indefinitely. . . . Joe Jackson, who coached the boys’ basketball team at Campbell Hall High in North Hollywood the past three years, has been fired. Jackson led Campbell Hall to a 24-5 record, the Southern Section V-AA final and a berth in the state playoffs this past season. Administrators at the school are not commenting on why Jackson was released. Jackson said he plans to contest the firing with his attorney. . . . Robert Perez, a midfielder on Long Beach Millikan’s soccer team, recently was voted to the All-Southern Section team for the fourth consecutive year.