Stonerock Sets a Pace and Pulls Away at Meet

High school athletes from the Valley area won 12 events and set four meet records Saturday at the Northridge-Alemany Relays and Invitational meet at Cal State Northridge.

Darren Stonerock of Saugus High won the 1,500- and 3,000-meter races.

In the 1,500 meters, Stonerock paced the field through 400- and 800-meter splits of 63.9 and 2:10.0. At that point, teammate Martin Diesenbacher and Haissan Sabra of Ocean View were still in contention, but Stonerock broke the race open with a blistering 62.7 third lap. The smooth-striding Saugus senior finished in a personal best of 3:57.6.

In the 3,000 meters, Stonerock ran the first quarter mile in 64.3 and was never challenged. He led at the mile, clocking 4:33.4, and finished in 8:34.25, almost 21 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.

“I really felt good in the 1,500,” Stonerock said. “I only wish that there had been someone in the race to push me. I felt like I could have run a lot faster.”

While Stonerock was dominating the boys distance races, Lisa Rizzo of Hart was producing an impressive distance double of her own.

After being beaten by freshman Heather Scobie of Saugus in the girls 1,500 meters, Rizzo came back in the afternoon to easily win the 3,000 meters.

She followed Scobie and Saugus teammate Amy Reiter for the first half-mile before moving into the lead at the 1,000-yard mark. She then pulled away from the field, finishing in a meet record of 10:12.3.

Scobie faded to third (10:26.66) after having won the 1,500 in a personal best of 4:41.1. Rizzo finished second in 4:41.9.

Other top performances were turned in by Brooks Morris of Burroughs and Jerry Gilmore of Polytechnic. Morris won the pole vault with a meet-record height of 14-7. Gilmore won the long jump in a wind-aided 22-10 1/2.

Although she has been bothered much of this season by shin splints, Kelly Peacock of Van Nuys won both hurdle races.

The senior won the 100-meter lows in 14.43 and the 300-meter lows in a meet-record 42.7.

Peacock came out of the blocks quickly in the first race, then held off Hawthorne’s Sharron Edmonds (14.84).

In the 300-meter race, she had to run down fast-starting Tamiko White of Hawthorne in the stretch.

Rodney Bradshaw of Saugus won the 110-meter high hurdles in 14.41 and finished third in the 300-meter intermediates (38.81). He also ran relay legs on the mile and 400-meter relays.

Newbury Park’s girls relay teams, led by junior Melissa Sutton and freshman Amy Nesbitt, won both the two-mile relay (9:33.38) and distance-medley relay (12:27.30).

The Panthers’ 9:33.38 clocking broke the meet record by 12 seconds.