TRACK AND FIELD: SPERRY BREAKS AWAY, WINS 1,600 SIMI RUNNER HOLDS OFF OAK PARK FOE.Byline: IVAN OROZCO Staff Writer MOORPARK -- Oak Park's Courtney Lightfoot could have been mistaken for Anna Sperry's shadow Friday afternoon. Sperry -- Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. High's top distance runner distance runner n. A runner who competes in distance races. -- had Lightfoot trailing by inches for most of the 1,600-meter invitational race at the Ventura County Championships track and field meet at Moorpark High. Sperry tried to pull away, Lightfoot followed. But that changed with 300meters remaining in the race. That's when Sperry began to glide away from Lightfoot by scorching scorch v. scorched, scorch·ing, scorch·es v.tr. 1. To burn superficially so as to discolor or damage the texture of. See Synonyms at burn1. 2. the remainder of the race to a first-place finish Noun 1. first-place finish - a finish in first place (as in a race) win - a victory (as in a race or other competition); "he was happy to get the win" and a new meet record. Sperry completed the race in 4 minutes, 53.54 seconds to beat Amy Skieresz of Agoura's 1993 record. "(Lightfoot) was on," said Sperry, who came into the meet fighting cold symptoms. "I was thinking that I couldn't let her try to catch up. I was like 'Dang it, I can't let it go."' Lightfoot watched Sperry cross the finish line about 20meters ahead of her, but losing was not such a bad thing. The Oak Park standout clocked a personal best of 5:02.28, taking the silver medal. "I just ran my hardest trying not to chase from too far back," said Lightfoot, who went on to place second in the 3,200 invitational behind Sperry, who finished in 10:33.67. "She has a good kick. I tried catch up but she's fast. Running against her gives me confidence. It's cool I got to PR." Malibu's Emani Truluck broke the girls' 300 invitational hurdles' record in 44.53. Cathy Prater prate v. prat·ed, prat·ing, prates v.intr. To talk idly and at length; chatter. v.tr. To utter idly or to little purpose. n. of Agoura set the previous record (45.04) in 1994. "I came here to go all out," said Truluck, who also took first in the 110 hurdles and the triple jump. "There was no doubt I wanted to win this thing." Agoura discus thrower Derek Johnson Derek Johnson (born January 5, 1933 – died August 30, 2004) was a British athlete, who was born in Chigwell, Essex. He did his National Service in Egypt before going up to Lincoln College, Oxford to read medicine in 1953. won his fourth gold medal gold medal traditional first prize. [Western Cult: Misc.] See : Prize this month. The Cal State Bakersfield-bound thrower took first place with 187-feet, 9-inch mark on his third toss. Johnson took gold at the Arcadia Invitational, the Antelope Valley Throws Fest and at the Mt. San Antonio College Mt. San Antonio College (commonly called Mt. SAC; pronounced as the word "sack") is a community college located in the Los Angeles suburb of Walnut, California, next to California State Polytechnic University, Pomona which is just over a hill. Mt. Invitational. He also won the Invitational shotput with a mark of 50-feet, 31/2-inches. The Rio Mesa of Oxnard boys' 400-meter relay team shattered the Ventura County all-time record in a time of 41.68. Hueneme held the record for six years with a 42.36 mark. The Spartansalso broke the school's all-time record time of 41.74 seconds. "We knew we wanted to come in here and break records," said Quentin Greenlaw, Rio Mesa's second leg runner. "Now we'll have to keep breaking our own record." ivan.orozco@dailynews.com (818) 713-3607 |
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