Burnham-Miller Duel Set for Arcadia Sprints

For the first time in three years, Angela Burnham of Rio Mesa High will be the underdog in the Arcadia Invitational track meet tonight at Arcadia High.

Burnham, the defending state champion in the 100 and 200 meters, will be pitted against Muir’s Inger Miller in both sprints.

Miller was second in the 100 and third in the 200 at last year’s state championships at Cerritos College and defeated Burnham in the 100 (11.70 seconds to 11.74) at the Alemany-Northridge Relays at Cal State Northridge three weeks ago. Miller also ran a national-best 23.62 in the 200 in the Pasadena Games at Occidental College.

Burnham, Track and Field News’ female athlete of the year in 1988, defeated Miller twice at Arcadia last year, and is the two-time defending Arcadia champion in the 100 and 200.

The meet starts at 4 p.m. with the boys’ discus, followed by the boys’ long jump and the girls’ high jump, triple jump and discus at 5:30. The first running event is the boys’ seeded 400-meter relay at 6:40.

Russell White of Crespi will compete in four events. White is the defending Arcadia champion in the triple jump and bounded 48 feet, 4 inches Thursday in a dual meet against St. John Bosco.

However, he will be a decided underdog in the long jump--despite his 23-4 best--to Dion Bentley of Penn Hills (Pa.), who set a national high school indoor record of 26-6 1/2 earlier this year.

White, who was eighth in the 200 in the state meet last season, also will run in the seeded 100 and 200.

Tony Borquez of Alemany, eighth in the 400 at the state meet, and Jeff Ingalls of Agoura have run 48.65 and 48.66, respectively, in the 400.

Burbank’s Todd Lewis, who was the runner-up in the 1,600 at the Southern Section 3-A Division championships last year, will be tested in the boys’ 1,600 by Coley Candaele of Carpinteria and Francis O’Neill of San Pasqual St. Francis.

The boys’ 3,200 will match several of the state’s best cross-country runners, including Bryan Dameworth of Agoura (state Division I champion). Also entered in the race are Mike Williamson of Thousand Oaks (second), Dave Hartman of Canyon (seventh), and Craig Lawson of Granada Hills (10th).

Williamson also will run in the 1,600 with Morgan Bateman of Crescenta Valley, who is the defending 4-A champion in the 800.

In other events, Crissy Mills of Campbell Hall and Nikki Smith of Montclair Prep will compete in the girls’ high jump and long jump.

Mills is the defending state champion in the high jump and Smith placed second in the long jump at last year’s state meet.