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Wind can't stop record-setting run Sanzari, Fogg, Howard lead girls; Diekman, Whitlock pace boys By DEWEY FORGET THE PRESS DEMOCRAT If Kristen Sanzari had a nickname, it might be "Miss Versatility." From the all-out 400 meter sprint to the stamina-sapping 800 and 1,600, the Maria Carrillo senior has the unique ability to compete at a high level. Sanzari has Empire-best times this year in the 400, 800, and the 1,600. In her spare time, she dabbles in the long jump. She has a leap of 15 feet, 5 inches, which is third-best in the Empire. And, to stay loose, she anchors the 800-meter and 1,600-meter relay. So it figured she would be busy Friday at the 24th annual All-City track and field meet at Santa Rosa High. While Sanzari chose not to compete in the 400 and 1,600, she did lead the Pumas to wins in the 800 and 1,600 relays, and managed to set a meet record. Running into the teeth of a howling wind the last 100 meters, Sanzari ran 2:16.1 to break Kim Conley's (Montgomery) 800-meter record of 2:16.4 set in 2004. "I was a little worried about the wind," said Sanzari, who set a blistering pace for the first 400 meters. "But the 400 time was about where I wanted it. I heard the announcer call my time with about 100 meters left, so I knew I had a chance at the record. I said, 'Come on, go for it.' " Sanzari's teammate Leanne Fogg ran 5:17.25 to easily take the 1,600, and then came back to take the gold in her specialty, the 3,200. Santa Rosa's Maurice Whitlock and Suzanne Howard, two of the Empire's best sprinters, were voted athletes of the meet. Howard, as expected ran away with the 100 and 300 hurdles. Less than ten minutes after the 100 hurdles, she won the 100-meter dash, her first time to run in that event. Whitlock ran 11.4 to out-kick teammate Therman McGowan (11.5) in the 100, and he also captured the 200. "We always compete against each other," said Whitlock, who seemed to get out of the blocks a step slow. "That's the weakest part of my race. If I could get out of the blocks better, I would be consistently under 11.0." Perhaps one of the best performance came from Santa Rosa Christian's John Diekman, who set a school record 40.8 in the 300-meter hurdles. Considering the strong head- wind the sprinters had to negotiate, it was a strong performance. He just missed Matt Sokol's (Montgomery) meet record of 39.11 set in 1989. Maria Carrillo girls racked up 203.5 points to place first in the team competition, while the Santa Rosa captured the boy's team title.
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