RUNNING : Festival Kept 2 Local Athletes on Track

In terms of spectator turnout, the U. S. Olympic Festival was a flop.

But for Melanie Clarke and Marty Beck, the Festival’s track and field competition at UCLA’s Drake Stadium served its purpose--to promote the development of upcoming national-class athletes.

Clarke, 20, who won her second consecutive state junior college title in the heptathlon for Valley College in May, was part of the West 400-meter relay team that finished third in 46.61 seconds. The South won in 44.66.

Beck, 21, was the state runner-up in the 400-intermediate hurdles for Glendale College in 1990 and placed fourth in the NCAA Division I championships in the event for UCLA in June. He ran a 46.2-second third leg for the victorious West 1,600-meter relay team of Kevin Young, Chris Taylor and Quincy Watts that was timed in 3 minutes 4.42 seconds.

Both athletes conceded that they had geared their training for the collegiate track season and were not in top shape, but they accepted the invitation to gain exposure.

“I was tired and burned out, but I wanted to get my name in the books and did not want to let the opportunity pass me up,” said Clarke, who lives in Northridge and ran on the fourth-place West 1,600-meter relay team in last year’s Festival in Blaine, Minn.

Beck had stopped running after the Division I meet but resumed his training three weeks before the Festival. “I was real excited when they called me to run,” said Beck, who lives in Van Nuys.

“The attendance might have been better if they held it somewhere else instead of L.A., but it was great to run on my home track. I’m not a big name, but I was pumped up because a lot of people knew me and were rooting for me.”

Add Festival: Beck did not have an opportunity to practice with his 1,600-meter relay squad and Clarke was able to practice only once with her teammates.

Additionally, Clarke was unable to confirm her selection to the team and did not obtain credentials until July 15, three days before the start of the track competition and two days after the opening ceremonies.

“Last year, they sent me information and this year I just got a call and that was it,” she said. “The meet itself ran smoothly and the hospitality was nice. I’m not pointing the finger at the coaches because they did a good job, but everything seemed unorganized.”

Add Beck: Track & Field News magazine did not list Beck among its candidates to make the Division I intermediate hurdles finals in its May NCAA preview issue.

However, Beck, who lowered his personal best from 50.97 to 50.23 this season, credits Young--the No. 1-ranked intermediate hurdler in the world in 1989 and a two-time NCAA champion for UCLA--for his fourth-place finish.

Young, the 1991 Festival champion in the intermediates, and Beck train together at UCLA under the guidance of Bruin sprints Coach John Smith.

“At Glendale, I was always training alone,” Beck said. “To have someone like Kevin to key on in practice every day is a challenge and has helped my technique. Nobody expected me to do anything and now I am an All-American.”

Trivia time: Jeff Nelson of Burbank High, the national high school record-holder in the two-mile run (8:36.3), won consecutive state titles at that distance in 1978 and ’79. Name the other Burbank athlete to win a state track and field championship in the ‘70s.

Learning experience: Darcy Arreola’s performance in the 1,500 meters in the World University Games in Sheffield, England, fell short of her expectations, but she believes the experience was worthwhile.

Arreola, the NCAA Division I champion for Cal Sate Northridge who was running overseas for the first time, finished 12th in 4:16.97 despite leading with 250 meters left. Sonia O’Sullivan of Ireland won in 4:12.14, and the first four runners were separated by only 0.46 seconds.

“This is going to help me in the long run,” Arreola said. “Racing in Europe is so much different and it’s a lot more aggressive. Everybody has a kick.”

Arreola, who placed third in The Athletics Congress national championships in June with a personal best of 4:09.32 and qualified for the U.S. team for the World Championships in Tokyo later this month, was caught off guard by the pedestrian pace early in the race.

She passed through the 800-meter mark in 2:20 after taking the lead 700 meters into the race but ran 2:12 for her last 800 and 65 seconds for her final 400.

“There was a lot of shoving and I was just concentrating on trying to get good position on the inside,” said Arreola, who hoped to go through 800 meters in 2:13 and run in the 4:07-4:08 range.

“I had no idea what the pace was until I heard 2:20 and I knew that it was going to come down to a kick--an area where I am lacking. I started to think negative things when one person passed me and then everybody started going by.”

Her performance also might have suffered because of a three-day layover in Florida and the fact that she arrived in England a week before she was to compete.

“Two days before the race I didn’t go anywhere. I just sat around,” she said. “I was so nervous before TAC that I couldn’t sleep, but here I didn’t care. I just wanted to come home.”

In the long run: Antelope Valley College freshman Jean Harvey placed second in the 10,000 meters in 36:04.33 in the Pan American Games in Kingston, Jamaica, on July 19. Pam Hansen of South Dakota State won in 35:36.57 in a race run in high humidity and temperatures in the upper 80s.

The race was only Harvey’s second effort at the distance. She finished second in 35:39.10 in TAC’s Junior (19 and under) championships in June in her first try.

Midsummer report: The Glendale College men’s cross-country team won the Western State Conference championship last season and went on to place sixth in the state championships.

Glendale Coach Ed Lopez said that the Vaqueros, who have won 12 conference titles since 1976, are in good position to defend their WSC title and is predicting a top-three state meet showing.

Returning are individual state champion Hugo Allan Garcia and Obed Aguirre (seventh) as well as Oscar Perez, who finished fifth in the steeplechase in the state track championships. Robert Nelson, a transfer from Pasadena City College who placed 10th in the 1989 Southern California junior college cross-country regional, is expected to compete for Glendale after redshirting last season.

Add Glendale: Gretchen Lohr-Cruz, an All-American in cross-country and track at Cal State Los Angeles, has been named the women’s cross-country coach at Glendale.

Lohr-Cruz, 31, placed fourth in the 1989 L.A. Marathon and finished sixth in the 10,000 meters for Cal State L.A. in the 1988 NCAA Division I championships. While competing for Valley College in 1986, she placed second in the 3,000 and third in the 5,000 in the state championships. Lohr-Cruz led the East L.A. College women’s track team to the Southern California Athletic Conference championship in her coaching debut last season. Glendale was the WSC runner-up last season.

Trivia answer: John Musich won a state title at 880 yards (1:51.0) for Burbank in 1974.