Johnston Nails a Meet Record With Hammer Toss of 192-6 : Track and field: Antelope Valley thrower wins Southern California junior college title. Valley’s Clarke qualifies for state championships in seven events.

A year and a half ago, Larry Johnston had no idea what the hammer throw was all about.

On Saturday, he won the event for Antelope Valley College in the Southern California junior college track and field championships at Bakersfield City College.

Johnston, who won the Foothill Conference title two weeks ago with a personal best of 196 feet 2 inches, set a meet record of 192-6 on Saturday to establish himself as the favorite in next week’s state meet at Sacramento’s Hughes Stadium.

Not bad for a guy who played football and ran the half-mile for Lincoln High in Des Moines, Iowa, in the early 1980s. He came back to school--and track--in 1988, quitting his job as an audit supervisor for a hotel chain because he wanted to get a degree in exercise physiology.

“I was in the work force until a few years ago,” said Johnston, who graduated from high school in 1983 and was not introduced to the hammer until he was a Moorpark College freshman. “And then I decided it was time for something new like academics. And I figured that California would be a nice place to go to school.”

After working as a butler in Bel-Air for a year to establish his residency, Johnston enrolled at Moorpark in the fall of 1989, won the 1990 Western State Conference title in the hammer, then transferred to Antelope Valley for personal reasons last summer.

“I’m still learning the event,” said Johnston, 26, who has added 90 pounds to his 6-foot, 235-pound frame through competitive power-lifting. “I’m at the point right now where I’ll either hit a throw perfectly, or not at all. There’s no in between.”

But Johnston was not the only big winner. Melanie Clarke of Valley and Ken Teasley of Moorpark also won events.

Clarke, the defending state champion in the heptathlon, placed first in the women’s 400 in a personal best of 53.43 seconds and won the high jump at 5-6.

Teasley, who had never thrown the javelin before this year, won the event with a personal best of 208-3.

Clarke, who won the Southern California heptathlon championship in March with a personal best score of 5,127 points, also placed second in the 200 (24.42) Saturday and third in the long jump (18-7 1/4).

And as if that wasn’t enough, she contributed legs to Valley’s 400 and 1,600 relays, which finished fifth (49.17) and second (3:54.00).

Although she qualified for the state meet in seven events, Clarke won’t compete in that many in Sacramento, Valley Coach James Harvey said.

“I’m not going to run her into the ground,” Harvey said. “We’ll decide on Monday what events she’ll go in.”

Valley, powered by Clarke’s 47 points, placed third in the women’s team standings with 79 1/2 points behind El Camino (139 1/2) and San Diego Mesa (103).

Long Beach won the men’s team title with 145 points, followed by Mt. San Antonio (102) and Riverside (84). Glendale finished seventh with 31.

The top five finishers in races 800 meters or shorter, and in both the 400 and 1,600 relays qualified for the state meet. In races measuring 1,500 meters or longer and in the field events, the top six finishers advanced.

Noelle Righter of Moorpark, Jennifer Stewart of Valley and Angela Arrington of Antelope Valley were double qualifiers.

Righter placed fourth in the women’s 1,500 in 4 minutes 38.60 seconds, and was fifth in the 800 in 2:16.76.

Stewart placed second to teammate Clarke in the high jump (5-6) and was fourth in the javelin (125-10).

Arrington placed second in the discus (145-3) and was sixth in the shotput (37-9 1/2).

Robert Scott of Valley leaped 24-7 1/2 to finish second in the men’s long jump.