MT. SAC RELAYS: CARROLL JOINS ELITE COMPANY HER 100 TIME AMONG AREA'S ALL-TIME BEST.

Byline: Anel Laj Staff Writer

WALNUT - She rose to the occasion, not just once or twice, but three times. Four, if you count her teamwork in a relay.

It's difficult to stand out in a meet in which the world's best athletes compete, but Rio Mesa High's Porchea Carroll did just that Saturday at the 42nd annual Mt. San Antonio College Relays by running a lifetime best of 11.60 seconds to win the girls' 100 meters. It was her third consecutive first-place finish in the 100 meters for Carroll. Last week she won the Arcadia Invitational, and at the Pasadena Games she ran a then-personal best of 11.67.

Her heat in the 100 meter was the most competitive, with the World Youth Games 400 meters champion and two-time defending 400 meters state champion Monique Henderson of Morse High running, as well as defending City Section 100 and 200 meters champion Alexis Weatherspoon of Grant High in Van Nuys. But that didn't intimidate Carroll. After all, she was a state qualifier in the 100, 200 and long jump last year.

"I was a little anxious coming in, because last week I did pretty good in the 100 but toward the end of the night I wasn't feeling too well and earlier in the week I wasn't feeling too good." said Carroll. "It felt good today, when I was running (the 100). I didn't realize how fast I was until after. I came out here to see where I was at, coming off not not feeling too well."

By dropping her time by seven hundredths of a second, Carroll is now the third all-time fastest female in the region behind Angela Burnham and Marion Jones. Burnham, a Rio Mesa of Oxnard graduate, ran the the 100 at 11.28 and Jones, who is a nine-time state champion and two-time world champion, ran the 100 at 11.14 while attending Thousand Oaks High.

Carroll, who was the Nike Indoor Classic long jump champion, leaped 18 feet, 4 1/2 inches for first place and finished fourth in the 200 meters with a wind-aided time of 24.16. She also anchored her Rio Mesa 4x100 relay team to a heat victory.

Tinisha Johnson of Reed High long-jumped the same distance, but Carroll was awarded first place because her second-best jump of 18-3 3/4 was better than Johnson's 17-8 1/4.

But it was also a day of personal bests and first-place finishes for the rest of the area's elite athletes. Camarillo's Chadd Smith cleared 6 feet, 10 inches on his second attempt to win the boys' high jump. Taft of Woodland Hills' Daneeka Torrey and Chris Morgan won the 100 hurdles. Cleveland of Reseda's 400-meter relay team of Mathew Clark, Jason Lovell, James Bethen, Julian Linear finished first with a time of 41.97. Eagle Rock's Rhuben Williams won the discus (178.1 feet) and shot put (63 feet, 1/4 inch).

But not all of these feats were easy. Smith did it in the face of adversity, high jumping with a torn patella tendon in his left knee.

"It did hurt a lot definitely," Smith said. "I was gritting my teeth in the air, but I guess that's what I'm gonna have to do to get that high."

He hasn't practiced on a consistent basis because of severe knee pain and jumps only on meet days with a neoprene brace. But the changes didn't affect his success Saturday as Smith cleared his personal best. During the Arcadia Invitational last week, he finished tied for eighth at 6-4. On Saturday he began at 6-4 and cleared it on his first attempt.

Hurdlers Morgan and Torrey swept the 100 highs and lows with impressive times. Morgan, who ran the fastest time in the state at 13.94 in the Arcadia Invitational last week, beat Marcus Raines of Littlerock by seven-tenths of a second clocking in at 14.04.

After finishing sixth in the Arcadia Invitational with a time of 14.39 last week, Colorado-bound Torrey ran a personal best at 13.99.

"It's the fastest time I've ran," Torrey said. "I did a lot of block starts to get my heart rate up and get going. It was smooth, and everything flowed. I was shocked."

Anita Siraki of Hoover, who is No. 1 in the nation in the 3,200 meters, finished second in the 1,500 (4:32.30) and fourth in the 800 (2:15.41). Siraki lost to the nation's No. 2 3,200-meter runner Sara Bei, of Montgomery, who Siraki had beaten at the Arcadia Invitational by a little over 12 seconds.

Although Grant's Weatherspoon did not finish in first in any event, she ran an extremely competitive heat in the 100 and 200 meters, finishing third in both events. She ran a lifetime best of 11.79 in the 100 and a wind-aided 23.99 in the 200.