HIGH SCHOOL TRACK MT. SAC RELAYS : Jones Gets Competition From Dring

Marion Jones of Oxnard Rio Mesa High, the top girls’ prep sprinter in the nation this season, will continue trying to rewrite the record book today and Saturday in the 33rd annual Mt. San Antonio College Relays at Walnut.

Jones, a 15-year-old sophomore, set a national record of 22.87 seconds in the 200-meter dash last weekend at the Arcadia Invitational. She also established a national record for sophomores and 15-year-olds in the 100 meters with a time of 11.38.

She will skip the 200 at Mt. SAC, and run the 100 and 400. Jones ran a personal-best 54.21 in the 400 at Mt. SAC last year and leads the nation this season with a 54.66.

Rio Mesa Co-Coach Brian FitzGerald says Jones is shooting for a personal best in the 400. She will receive plenty of competition from Allison Dring of San Diego Mt. Carmel, who has run a 54.77 this season.

More than 200 schools will participate in the Mt. SAC Relays, making it the biggest meet in the state. Competition gets under way today at 2:45 p.m. with the boys’ and girls’ triple jump and continues until 7 p.m. Prep competition starts at 8 a.m. Saturday and ends at 2:30 p.m.

While most of the Southland’s top names will be there, jumper Juliana Yendork of Walnut is expected to miss the meet because of a hamstring injury. Yendork, who leads the state in the long jump and triple jump, also sat out the Arcadia meet.

In the boys’ competition, the most interesting races should be the 100 and 200 meters, with Ricky Carrigan of Compton meeting Napolean Kaufman of Lompoc.

Carrigan won both sprint races at Arcadia, and Kaufman was a no-show. But Kaufman is entered at Mt. SAC and expected to run.