RUNNING : Arreola Primed to Take a Step Up in Class

Don Strametz, Cal State Northridge’s track and field coach, said he had to be pulled off the ceiling after watching protege Darcy Arreola finish third in the 1,500 meters in The Athletics Congress championships on Saturday.

Arreola ran a personal-best and school-record time of 4 minutes 9.32 seconds to qualify for the U. S. team that will compete in the World Championships in Tokyo, Aug. 24-Sept. 2, yet Strametz said there is plenty of room for her to improve in the two months prior.

“As well as she ran the other day, she could have run better,” Strametz said. “There is no reason why she should have let (Alisa) Hill and (Suzy) Favor-Hamilton get that far ahead of her early in the race. She would have run faster if she had stayed closer to the leaders early on.”

Although Arreola slipped past a fading Hill in the final 10 meters of the race--earning the final berth from that event on the U. S. team--she couldn’t quite keep pace with Favor-Hamilton and PattiSue Plumer. Favor-Hamilton, running for Reebok Racing Club, won in 4:06.13, barely holding off Plumer of Nike International (4:06.59.)

“I was basically running for third,” Arreola said Saturday. “I figured Suzy and PattiSue were going to be the top two but that third was up for grabs, so I hung back early in the race.”

Strametz hopes to adjust Arreola’s attitude in the coming months.

“She’s to the point now where she feels like she can run with anyone in the country except for that trio (Favor-Hamilton, Plumer and U. S. record-holder Mary Decker-Slaney),” Strametz said. “But in order to move up another notch, she has to try and beat them.”

Add TAC: Organizers were bombarded with criticism ranging from complaints about lack of a wind gauge at some events to the site of the competition. The meet was held at Randalls Island, N.Y., close to the busy Triborough Bridge and choking exhaust fumes.

Arreola’s biggest complaint, however, was the lack of safe places in which to run. Upon her arrival at La Guardia Marriott Hotel in Queens, Arreola was told not to walk on the streets alone. Consequently, she did not run last Thursday and she failed to get in her usual morning run Friday before competing in a 1,500-meter semifinal in the evening.

“I really felt sluggish in the semis,” Arreola said. “And I think a lot of it was because I wasn’t able to run on Thursday and Friday.”

Arreola solved her predicament Saturday by running with roommate Buffy Rabbitt of UC Irvine in a small “safe zone” on the local streets, but the whole experience left her feeling less than enthralled about running in future meets in New York City.

“With all those athletes there and so much at stake, you’d think they would have put it in a nicer place,” Arreola said.

Fast facts: With so many high school stars flaming out before reaching their potential, it is noteworthy that Favor-Hamilton (Stevens Point High in Stevens Point, Wis.) and Arreola (La Mesa Grossmont) were both named high school All-Americans as seniors in 1986.

Favor-Hamilton was ranked No. 1 in the 1,500 meters in Track & Field News high school rankings that year after posting nation-leading times in the 1,500 (4:18.62) and mile (4:44.2). Arreola was ranked second with bests of 4:23.9 and 4:44.43, respectively.

Presenting her case: Track & Field News will not announce its high school athletes of the year until November, but Rio Mesa High sophomore Marion Jones greatly enhanced her chances for an award with her performance in the TAC meet.

Jones entered the meet with the fastest girls’ times this year in the 100 (11.17), 200 (22.87) and 400 (52.91), and then finished eighth in the 100 and fourth in the 200.

Her 22.76-second clocking in the 200 is a national high school record and was only 0.04 seconds behind third-place Esther Jones of LSU.

Trivia question: Jones’ 22.76 clocking made her the second girl from the region to currently hold a national high school record. Who is the other?

Junior update: Jones heads a list of five local athletes who will compete in The Athletics Congress Junior (19 and under) track and field championships at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minn., Friday through Sunday.

Jones will compete in the women’s 100 meters Saturday and in the 200 Sunday. Also on Sunday, Agoura High senior Tiffany York will compete in the women’s 3,000, and Antelope Valley College freshman Jean Harvey and Agoura High sophomore Kristie Camp will run in the women’s 10,000. Jennifer Stewart of Valley College will compete in the women’s javelin.

North Carolina bound: Thirty-nine members of the West Valley Eagles youth track team will compete in the TAC Junior Olympic championships at the University of North Carolina, July 23-28.

The Eagles won 19 boys’ events and four girls’ events in five age-group divisions in the regional Junior Olympics qualifying meet at Cal State Long Beach on Saturday and Sunday. West Valley’s biggest medal haul came in the boys’ intermediate (athletes born in 1975 and ‘76) and youth (’77 and ‘78) divisions, winning six events in the latter and seven in the former.

The Eagles’ intermediate and youth boys’ 400-meter relay teams turned in the highest quality marks, winning their races in 43.4 and 45.4, respectively.

Trivia answer: Denean Howard of Kennedy, who ran a national high school record of 50.87 to win the 400 in the 1982 TAC meet.