The Sacramento Running Association will induct eight into its inaugural Hall of Fame class tonight at a 6 o'clock dinner at the Sheraton Grand Hotel.

The eight inductees:

• Billy Mills won the gold medal in the 10,000 meters at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo in a then-Olympic-record time of 28 minutes, 24.4 seconds. He is the only American to win Olympic gold in the event.

• Paul Reese, who died in 2004, founded the Clarksburg Country Run and the Lake Tahoe 72-miler. He was an early member of the Buffalo Chips Running Club and was the race director for the Capitol-to-Capitol 140-mile run and the Sunkist 100.

• Dennis Rinde, a former Casa Roble High School and Sacramento State standout, ran eight marathons under 2 hours, 15 minutes. He finished seventh in the 1981 Boston Marathon in 2:12:01, the fastest time ever by a Sacramento runner.

• Helen Klein, who began running at 55, completed more than 200 ultras and marathons and set numerous world and American age-group records.

• Eileen Claugus, who set the national record for the high school mile with a 4:40.2 while at Rio Americano, holds the second-fastest marathon time by a local woman in the California International Marathon, 2:40:04 in 1985.

• Rae Clark – known as the running Renaissance Man for winning races in record times on the road, track and trail – was inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame in 2011.

• Linda Somers Smith won the 1993 CIM and the U.S. national women's marathon title in 2:34:11. She repeated her national title the following year with a 2:33:42 at Grandma's Marathon.

• Chris Iwahashi competed in more than 160 marathons and won the Napa Valley Marathon three times.

Tonight's event also includes the SRA's annual achievement awards for the area's top runners in track, road racing, cross country and ultra running.

For a complete list and bios, go to www.sacbee.com or www.runsra.org.

– Bee Sports staff

Escobedo to fight Feb. 16

Woodland native Vicente Escobedo (26-4, 15 knockouts) will fight Edner Cherry (30-6-2, 16 KOs) of Wauchula, Fla., in a junior-lightweight bout on Feb. 16 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

The scheduled 10-round fight will be on the undercard of the main event between World Boxing Council lightweight champion Adrien "The Problem" Broner and Gavin Rees.

This will be Escobedo's first fight since being stopped by Broner on July 21 in Cincinnati. Broner, the World Boxing Organization junior-lightweight champion, was 13 pounds over the weight limit and stripped of his title before the fight. Escobedo could have won the vacant title but was stopped by the bigger, faster Broner in the fifth round.

– Victor Contreras

Bryan back for Capitals

Wayne Bryan will return as the Capitals' coach for the 2013 season, the World TeamTennis franchise announced Friday. It will be Bryan's 12th season as the team's coach.

The Capitals' schedule and roster will be announced in early March.

– Bee Sports staff

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