MT. SAN ANTONIO COLLEGE RELAYS : Arreola, Fields Qualify for TAC Meet

One is a Valley transplant and the other has been a fixture in local distance-running circles since 1977.

And on Saturday night at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in Walnut, Darcy Arreola and Farron Fields each qualified for The Athletics Congress national championships.

Arreola, a 1986 graduate of Grossmont High in La Mesa, finished seventh in the women’s 3,000 meters in a personal best of 9 minutes 12.77 seconds. Fields, a 1979 graduate of Granada Hills High, ran 28:45.25 to place 10th in the men’s 10,000.

“I’m really happy with my time,” said Arreola, who is redshirting at Cal State Northridge this season. “I didn’t really have an idea what I was going to run coming in here because we haven’t done much long-distance work this season.”

That lack of strength appeared to take its toll in the final 800 meters as Arreola faded from fifth to seventh.

“I was just trying to run steady,” said Arreola, a 1,500-meter specialist. “I felt really good. It wasn’t like in the past, when I’ve felt like dying the last two laps. . . I might even start to like this race.”

Arreola had kilometer splits of 3:00.2, 3:05.7 and 3:06.9.

Fields, who ran 13:51 in a 5,000-meter road race in Carlsbad last month, made his first 10,000-meter foray on the track a success.

After passing the first 5,000 meters in 14:11, Fields slowed over the sixth and seventh kilometers, then gradually picked it up, clocking 2:59.4, 2:54.0 and 2:51.7 in his last three kilometers.

Cal State Northridge also had several good performances.

In the men’s university open 100, a timing malfunction might have cost Matador sprinters Kevin Hendrix and Chris Pippins season bests.

Running in the second heat, Hendrix (season best of 10.55 seconds) and Pippins (10.52) finished a close third and fourth behind Pat Steven of Belgium (10.43) and James Bullock of Arizona (10.45), but neither were given an official time.

Pippins came back with a vengeance in the 200 a half-hour later, finishing second in his heat with a wind-aided 20.98 to easily exceed the qualifying standard for the NCAA Division II championships in that event.

Down by three meters coming off the turn, Pippins narrowed the gap to less than a meter at the finish in posting a personal best.

For the second meet in a row, Dave Youngberg improved his personal best in the hammer throw by two feet.

Sporting a best of 176 feet 10 inches a little more than a week ago, Youngberg threw 178-10 in a quadrangular meet at Cal State Los Angeles last week to qualify for the Division II championships, then improved to 180-10 on Saturday to place fifth in the first flight of the university open division competition.

The effort solidified Youngberg’s hold on the No. 10 position on the all-time Northridge list.

Several former local high school standouts also turned in notable performances.

UCLA freshman Angela Burnham, who started slowly this season, ran the 100 meters in 11.54 to win the university open division.

Aided by a wind of 8.16 meters per second, well over the allowable 2.0 m.p.s., the five-time state sprint champion from Rio Mesa High exceeded the provisional qualifying standard for the Division I championships in Durham, N.C., and automatically qualified for The Athletics Congress national championships.

Lee Balkin, a 1979 graduate of Glendale High, tied Brian Brown of Northwest Louisiana for second in the invitational men’s high jump, clearing 7-4 1/2.