Arreola Runs Away With First Place at CSUN Invitational

Darcy Arreola and Dave Walsh of Cal State Northridge came back from sub-par efforts a week ago to turn in fine performances at the Northridge Cross-Country Invitational on Saturday night.

Freshman Arreola won the womens race with a 17:30 over the 5,000-meter course at Cal State Northridge. Former Newbury Park standout Denise Ball finished second in 17:47 to lead UCLA to a first-place finish in the team standings. The Bruins scored 30 points, and Northridge placed second with 38.

Walsh’s second-place 24:44 in the men’s race led Northridge (50) to a second-place finish behind the Air Force Academy (41). The UCLA B team finished third with 76.

Arreola dominated the women’s race, leading from start to finish. After clocking a 5:21 for the first mile, she steadily pulled away from her closest opponents, Ball, Julie Seleine of USC and Northridge teammate Nancy Bowman.

At the two-mile mark, the smooth-striding Arreola had a 40-yard lead, and she stretched it to more than 100 yards at the finish.

Bowman, the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. champion at 5,000 meters in track, finished fourth in 17:52. Tina Cheney (18:10), Kim Sterton (18:17) and freshman Heather Houston (18:35) rounded out the Northridge scoring in seventh, 11th and 15th.

Afterward, Arreola said that her poor showing at Stanford had served as motivation for the race. “I definitely wanted to run well here,” she said. “Especially after running so poorly at Stanford. I had to redeem myself.”

Sophomore Walsh expressed similar sentiments following the men’s race. “I just wanted to run a good, competitive race.”

He did.

Walsh went through the mile in 4:45 and the two mile in 9:11. By then, only Ralph Garibaldi of UC Irvine and Gus Mojarro, a former CSUN runner now with the Reebok Track Club, were still in contention.

After Mojarro dropped off the lead pace at three miles (14:20), Walsh tried to surge away from Garibaldi at four, but was unable to do so. Instead, Garibaldi broke away from Walsh and won in 24:36.

Walsh finished swiftly to run down a resurging Mojarro (24:45) for second.