Brown Feeling the Heat Before His Great Race : Track and field: Huntington Beach hurdler hopes to live up to his potential in Arcadia Invitational event.

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  As he speaks, his toes tap and his hands wave. He crosses and uncrosses his legs. He bounces and squirms. He has nearly chews to bits the cap on his felt-tip pen. Approaching the biggest race of his young life, it’s fairly apparent that Adrian Brown, Orange County’s top prep high hurdler, is feeling the pressure.

The Arcadia Invitational, perhaps the most prestigious in-season high school track and field meet in the nation, can do that to people.

“This thing is stressing me out,” Brown, a junior at Huntington Beach High School, said this week.

“Right now, it’s all I can think about. I think about it when I wake up. I think about it in class. I think about it all the time. . . . “

Tonight at 7:20, in the men’s 110-meter high hurdle final, Brown will have no more time to think. As he blasts out of the starting blocks in lane six, instincts will be his guide.

“I’ve never even been to Arcadia,” said Brown, 16. “I don’t even know where it is. I wake up and it’s the first thing I think about. I see someone ahead of me, I got to catch him, got to run faster. . . . “

If Brown seems a little caught up in tonight’s race, it is understandable. As a four-time age-group hurdle champion who started running competitively at age 9, Brown has had track on his mind for some time.

He has competed six years for the West Coast Express, a Gardena-based track club affiliated with The Athletics Congress, and still represents the club in competitions after the high school season.

When he came to Huntington Beach as a freshman two years ago, Brown won the frosh/soph league championship in the high hurdles--even though his times were of varsity quality.

But with his sophomore year came high expectations . . . and ineligibility.

Brown did not meet Huntington Beach’s minimum 2.0 grade-point-average in the fall of 1988 and was forced to sit out the following track season.

Asked how that affected him, Brown flopped over dramatically.

“Oh! It didn’t hit me for awhile,” he said. “I tried not to think about it. It just came down on me, I cried every week. I mean, it’s pretty hard to go out and watch the meets and see people win that you know you could just blow away.

“But I’m not a dumb kid, I just didn’t do my homework.”

Homework, he said, is now his first priority. “It’s the first thing I do when I come home,” he said. “I was goofing around before, going out, not being responsible. That’s not the way it is anymore.”

Which is good for the Oiler track and field team. Brown, a 5-foot-11 163-pound body of seemingly endless energy, is adept at not only the high hurdles but the 300 intermediate hurdles, the long jump and triple jump. Thursday, he won all four to lead Huntington Beach to victory over Ocean View.

But it is in the high hurdles that he hopes to make his name.

Brown often puts in some extra training on his own, with his mother, Michelle, guiding him from the stands. Michelle Brown has sought advice on the latest technical information from some of the event’s experts, including 1988 Olympic bronze medalist Tonie Campbell.

“My mom’s been working me out since the beginning,” Brown said. “She’s good at it.”

Although he returned punts and kickoffs last fall for the football team, Brown said the risk of injury has prompted him to give up football. Already, he has established himself as one of the fastest high hurdlers in the Southern Section. He won the event at the Orange County Championships last month, (though he disputes the official time of 14.44 seconds, saying he’s going with the time his coaches clocked him in--14.02).

Nevertheless, Brown says he is now ready to break 14 seconds--a feat previously accomplished by only five Orange County athletes. The county record is 13.41, set by Mission Viejo’s Steve Kerho in 1982.

But Brown is confident he can run in the 13s tonight.

“I promise,” he said. “I could almost promise you I can run a 13 at Arcadia. I’ve dropped (my time) like that before.

“I’ve never been under this (type of) pressure, though. But I’m calming down, I’m calming down.”

Arcadia Notes

Other top county athletes scheduled to compete include Edison’s Shelley Taylor, who, along with Villa Park’s Susannah Thrasher, El Modena’s Kristina Dahlberg and Mater Dei’s Kelly Flathers, will meet the nation’s best 1,600-meter runners in Beth Bartholomew of Sunnyvale Fremont and South Hills’ Karen Hecox. . . . Others include: San Clemente’s Tim Martin and Los Alamitos’ Erik Mitchell (100, 200); Mission Viejo’s Chris Moxley, Katella’s Kevin Carlson (high jump), Mater Dei’s Melissa McDonald, Villa Park’s Beth Byron (high jump); Phouphet Singbandith (long and triple jump); Los Alamitos’ Hartwell Brown, Dana Hills’ Andy Marrone (discus); Santa Ana Valley’s Brenda Robinson (long and triple jump); Corona del Mar’s Keith Miller (pole vault); Marina’s Brian McCaffery (1,600); Dana Hills’ Matt Jordan, Edison’s Lawson Mollica (shotput); Santa Ana Valley’s Joanna Alo (shotput); El Modena’s Mike Terry (800); Woodbridge’s Amy Robles, Ocean View’s Christie Engesser (800); Woodbridge’s Kaci Keffer (400); San Clemente’s Mike Farrell and La Habra’s Mark Gonzales (3,200); Katella’s Martha Pinto and Woodbridge’s Cathi Peck (3,200). . . . Chris Nelloms of Dayton Dunbar (Ohio), the nation’s top boys’ track and field athlete, was expected to compete in the 110-meter hurdles as well as in the 400, 200 and 1,600 relay, but will not compete because of an injury. . . . The meet, in its 23rd year, begins with the field events at 5:30 p.m. at Arcadia High School.