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1993 Sunkist Indoor Track
1993 Sunkist Indoor It was not that many years ago that one of the winter season highlights of the sport locally was the Sunkist Indoor Track and Field meet at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles. With a number of the arenas around the nation of the 160 yard variety in those days, squeezed onto basketball arena floors, the sport had a big following of fans who were close to the action and enjoyed immensely the tight “on the boards” and banked turn action. Those were the days when Olympic level athletes from California performed in at least a few local affairs, including the evening portion of Sunkist, before the focus in the sport has really moved to overseas “pay-days” during the summer that precluded much indoor competition anymore for many. The Sports Arena had its 160 yard track set up for a big day of action during the winter, with the preps pounding the boards, sprint straight, and field event facilities contained within, while the Shot Put crew went around the block to USC to toss their implements. As we indicated in our preview article, the Sunkist Indoor Track and Field Meet t-shirt was the most seen around the state during the spring, and a ton of great memories came from those meets in Los Angeles. Coaches dealt with Al Franken and crew in their offices on the phone for months to squeeze individuals or relay teams on to the meet schedule, with just about everyone who was not involved in a winter sport such as basketball showing up to measure their winter conditioning. The 1993 Sunkist affair featured a National Record, emergence of an age-group star on the prep scene in fine style, some great relay and field action, with a day of solid activity for a ton of athletes that left one looking forward to the start of the spring season in a couple of weeks. The Open evening level of the competition in the evening that year featured three sub-4 minute miles (including current Palos Verdes Coach Jeff Atkinson, second to Joe Falcon's 3:58.95 with his 3:59.16). There was a World 50 meter sprint record by Gail Devers, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Greg Foster took the Hurdles, World Record Intermediate Hurdler Kevin Young took the 500 yard event, and Mike Stulce threw the Shot over 70 feet to win over World Record holder Randy Barnes. It was a very satisfying day in the sport. The Sunkist meet used to run some off-distances, with meet management realizing the reduced racing schedule for Golden Staters made challenging the record standards set by those back east who had full seasons during the winter quite difficult. So, races like 50 meters or 500 yards were part of the schedule, with those headliners for the California sprint and long-dash crew.
Marion Jones was a part of the Thousand Oaks HS basketball program by 1993 after her switch from Rio Mesa HS, and the success of that team tied her up in playoff action that pulled her away from the Sunkist affair, where she had an impressive career, despite not really preparing for track during basketball. There were still some short-dash headlines from the weekend here. On the Boys’ side, Bryan Howard was part of a great West Bakersfield frosh group from 1992, with Marques Holliwell and Bryan making probably the state’s ninth grade duo ever at the same school, Holliwell blazing 10.62 as a powerful first year prep. Bryan moved to Canyon Springs HS in Moreno Valley and blazed a 5.84 50 meter meet record here in his heat win, with Paul Turner (University City, San Diego), a Colorado State-bound footballer 5.85 in his prelim win. In the finals Turner surprisingly closed very quickly to win 5.80-5.84, the 5.80 a National prep record for the distance. Interestingly the duo would reverse positions outdoors, with Howard the State 100 champ as a soph and Turner next 10.43-10.49 (Holliwell 4th at 10.66). On the Girls’ side, Marion Jones came in here each winter off basketball and had some great performances, but the Thousand Oaks roundball team was strong, and Marion would be named the state Player of the Year on the court, so she took that activity this year pretty serious. That was okay, as some youngsters would shine. Long Beach had Poly with Aminah Haddad and Andrea Anderson with super ninth grade 1992 spring seasons, 2-3 at the State over 100 meters behind Marion Jones, with LaKeisha Backus (11.98 and 24.58 in the eighth grade) at Long Beach Wilson in 1992-93 as a frosh. Backus took her heat in the 50m at 6.49 (#7 AT US Prep), as Haddad false-started out, and Anderson was 6.46 (=#6 AT US) to take her prelim contest. In the Finals Anderson was the winner at 6.53. Behind Marion at the spring state track meet over 100 meters it would be Anderson (2nd), Haddad (3rd)m and Backus (4th) as the group helped established the amazing Moore League quality depth that has come down until today.
Michael Granville turned up at Bell Gardens HS after a great age-group career, with eighth grade bests of 48.57 (400m) and 1:56.7 (800m), with a 500 yard event scheduled at Sunkist. With the event divided into sections, it was Ethan Taub (Foothill, Santa Ana) who had the day’s quickest at 58.82 (coming by 440 at 49.6, a great time for this size track), with Granville racing a fine 60.01 which turned out to be the fastest ever by an American ninth grader while comfortably winning his section. This started a great prep career for Granville, with eventual prep indoor and outdoor National Records, his 1:46.45 still on the books as the best ever US high-schooler. That first ninth grade year Granville shocked with a 1:51 at Arcadia to win over 800 meter, then was third at the State meet over 400m with a seasonal best of 47.24.
Some good relay action highlighted the 1993 Sunkist meet, with Morningside (Inglewood) on the Girls’ side racing 1:14.69 for the famed 4x160 which always featured a few hand-offs of the crash and burn variety, then came back for a fine 3:54.19 4x440, the second fastest California time ever behind a former National Record set by Long Beach Poly of 3:52.35 from 1980. Muir headlined the Boys’ baton action with a fine 1:04.9, a 16.2 average for 160 yards with a running start, some fine running on the tight oval. Long Beach Wilson raced a fine 9:43.9 to take the Girls 4x880 relay.
Some good field event action highlighted the day. The Boys’ Pole Vault, Girls were not into the event yet, started at 1:00 p.m. with a ton in the event and ten over 14-06 when the bar moved that high. Six were over 15-00 when Meet Director Al Franken realized they were running out of time at 5:00 p.m. if the pro level vaulters were going to get into their event before the night was over. Jumping the bar from 15-00 to 15-09, Brandon Vance (Los Gatos) was the only athlete to make the height, with unsuccessful attempts at 16-02.5. The Sunkist floor was good to High-Jumpers, with Lavelle Baloney (Del Mar, San Jose) taking Jim Romero (LA Baptist) at 6-08 on misses, while Rick Madsen (Clovis West) was 6-08 to win the Rated Section. Tracye Lawyer (Cate, Carpinteria) took Danielle Boswell (Bullard, Fresno) in the Girls HJ with both at 5-08, with all-arounder Lawyer a personal best in the meet after an outdoor best the previous spring of 5-07 and heptathlon sore of 4254 as the nation’s top ninth grader there. Cheaza Figueroa (Quartz Hill) tok the Girls Long Jump at 18-08.75, with Muir’s Amber Roberts the Girls Triple Jump winner at 38-02.5, both among the top five in the nation that year up to that point indoors. Outdoors Tyson Lingenfelter (Upland) took the Boys’ Shot Put at 56-07.25, with Chelsea Stephens (Atwater) 42-02.25 to take the Girls Put. Maurice Taylor (University City, SD) took the Boys Long Jump at 22-09.25 and Derrick Mitchell (Mt. Eden, Hayward) the Triple Jup at 47-03.25.
The distance events were headlined by a top National level Boys Invitational Mile field that had Brian Wilkinson (Merced) 4:11.17 the year previous and the Millrose indoor winner at 4:16.58 two weeks previous, against Bob Keino, famed Kip’s son, a top New Jersey prep distance star. A slow early pace had the group come through 1320 yards at 3:24.6 before Wilkinson blazed 59.0 for the final 440 to win at 4:23.56. Christine Engesser (Ocean View, Huntington Beach), from an Orange County soccer family, had helped lead her school to a State Cross Country title in the Fall, and the 2:11.23 800 star followed a 2:22 relay leg on the 4x880 with a 2:17.7 clocking in the open event to win there. Duarte’s Nathan Woods, a 1:52.35 800 star as a junior, and one of Coach Mike Ramos’s stars from that era at the San Gabriel Valley school, took the Boys 880 at 1:58.11-1:58.18 over Paul de la Cerda (Hart, Newhall). Carrie Garritson (Buena Park) had Maribella Aparicio (Fillmore) close through a 5:20 first mile of the Girls Two Mile event, before romping away to a 10:52.52 win over Maribella’s 11:02.27. The Martin twins, Tim (9:29.2) and Theo (9:29.6) took Margarito Casillas (Hoover, Glendale) 9:30.9 in the Boys Two Mile, with Christina Blackmer (Upland) taking the Girls Seeded Mile at 5:12.90. Morse of San Diego’s Lana Garner took the Girls 500 yard event at 1:11.41. Drue Powell (Reseda), the eventual State outdoor High Hurdles champ in 1993 proved dominant here also, racing to the day’s quickest clocking over the 50 meter Highs at 6.94, with Jennifer Odom (Independence, San Jose) the Girls winner at 7.66. These were back in the days before so many nice banked 200 meter all-weather facilities were built in University and arena settings in the eastern US and the prep indoor season was not nearly as developed as it is in our times today. Back east there is currently a huge, complete season on rocket fast facilities that starts in mid-December, with places like the Armory in New York City where preps are literally able to run a couple of times per week if they wish in huge competitions. With Golden State colleges and civic groups not moving into construction of facilities and indoor tracks over the last decade, and groups with the funding such as the Amateur Athletic Foundation, with hundreds of millions from the 1984 Olympics still in their accounts, not deciding to go the facility construction route, the indoor sport in California has paled in comparison to the rest of the nation. The donation of the facility by Fred Arnold to the Fresno area was a rebirth of one competition in California this January, and it is hoped that facility can be used more often and placed in a setting where more high schoolers can race on it. There used to be meets in the Bay area, and San Diego, with the southern one also run by Al Franken and group, but eventually all, including the LA Sunkist Meet fell by the wayside, a real shame for the Golden State’s prep atheltes. We will take more looks in the mirror this coming spring with some old pictures for folks who have been around a while to attempt to identify. |
