Burston Cast in Right Role, Wins Three AAU Sprints

POWAY —  Lydell Burston, 14, seemed confused by all the attention. What was the big deal about winning the Youth Division 100 meters, 200 and 400 at Saturday’s finals of the Pacific Southwest AAU Youth Track and Field Championships at Poway High?

Well, for one, he did so while toting a cast on his right arm. He ruptured a tendon in his hand Thursday night and underwent minor surgery early Friday morning before running in the preliminaries later that afternoon.

For another, he set meet records in each event, finishing the 100 in 11.56 seconds (the old record was 11.60), the 200 in 23.33 (eclipsing 23.70), and finishing the 400 in 54.29 (the old record was 54.40). All the previous standards were set last year.

The performance was no big deal for Burston, who has been under 11 seconds in the 100, under 23 seconds in the 200 and under 51 in the 400.

But carrying that cast around slowed him down.

“My arm was throbbing,” he said after the 400. “But I tried not to think about it.”

It seems the only time Burston loses is when his teammate on Alexander’s Lightning Express, Ray Carter, beats him. Carter, running on a strained hamstring, finished second in the 200 (24.32) and 400 (55.5) and fourth in the 100 (12.3).

“We’re the only person we lose to,” Carter said. “And I would have won today, too, but I pulled my muscle racing him last week in the 400.”

Perhaps the best mark of the day was turned in by Lana Garner of the Martin Luther King Blasters. Garner won the Youth Girls’ 400 meters in 57.02 seconds. Garner, 14, is in the eighth grade, but had she been old enough to run in high school meets this year, that mark would have placed her second in the county to Mt. Carmel senior Allison Dring’s 55.3.

Garner, whose personal best in the event is 56.64, will attend Bell Junior High next year, but she will run track for Morse High School. Already she’s an experienced runner, having been with the Blasters for five years now.

Another Blaster, Lorraine Mootry, 13, finished first in the Youth Girls’ long jump at 17 feet 2 inches, a mark that would have been competitive in high school meets.