Arcadia Track Invitational : Pittsburgh’s Bentley Aims for Lewis’ Prep Record

Twenty-two years ago, Jerry Proctor of Pasadena Muir High School became the first high school long jumper to leap more than 26 feet, setting the national prep indoor record at 26-2 and the national outdoor record at 26-0 3/4.

Last winter, Dion Bentley of Pittsburgh’s Penn Hills shattered Proctor’s indoor record with a leap of 26-6 1/2.

Tonight at the Arcadia Invitational, Bentley will be taking aim at one of the most durable outdoor high school records in the books--Carl Lewis’ 26-8 1/4. Lewis set the record in 1979, as a senior at Willingboro High in New Jersey, when he finished third in the Pan American Games.

With athletes entered from 14 states, among them New York and Florida, the Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High School, has become the country’s premier regular-season meet.

The open session will begin at 11:30 a.m. The invitational portion will start at 4 p.m. with the discus. The long jump is scheduled at 5:30, and the first running event is set for 6:40.

The boys’ sprints and relays will feature Hawthorne and Oakland, but the top individual sprinter may be Albert Ransom of Denver Montbello.

Ransom is entered in the 100- and 400-meter events, in which he has bests of 10.43 and 46.2 seconds.

Challenging Ransom in the 100 will be Berry Smith of San Francisco Mission, who has run 10.49, and Oakland’s Jeff Laynes, who has a best of 10.64.

Hawthorne is the national leader in the 400 relay at 40.66, and has run 3:16.6 in the 1,600 relay. Oakland has bests of 41.99 and 3:19.5.

Highlighting the girls’ competition will be the sprints, the jumps and the throws.

Entered in both the 100- and 200-meter runs are Angela Burnham of Oxnard Rio Mesa, the 1988 national track and field athlete of the year, with bests of 11.28 and 23.45; Inger Miller of Muir, who has run 11.59 and 23.59 but beat Burnham earlier this season, and Andrea Lee of Milwaukee Riverside, the Wisconsin state champion, with bests of 11.92 and 24.02. They are the country’s best three sprinters.

The girls’ discus brings together the country’s best five throwers. Leading the way are Bakersfield juniors Dawn Dumble, with a throw of 170 feet 11 inches, and Melissa Weis at 165-4. They are followed by Julie Victor of Austintown-Fitch in Youngstown, Ohio, at 159-2, Candy Roberts of Chino Don Lugo at 157-9, and Alison Franke of Anaheim Canyon at 154-8.

Dumble and Weis also rank 1-2 in the shotput with bests of 48-5 1/2 and 45-7 1/2, respectively.

In the triple jump there are seven entrants with jumps of better than 38-6, led by Juliana Yendork of Walnut, who has a best of 40-8, and Leah Kirklin of Oklahoma City Marshall (40-5).

The long jump has nine competitors at 18-9 or better and the high jump has 11 at 5-8 or better, led by Lori Svoboda of Placentia El Dorado, who leaped 5-10 3/4 last week and ranks second in the nation.