Orange County Community College Notebook / Steve Kresal : Fullerton Runner Is a Natural

With each cross-country race that Marcial Beltran runs for Fullerton College, Coach Jim Keifer becomes more intrigued.

Beltran, a 19-year-old freshman, is one of the most pleasant dilemmas Keifer has ever had. Beltran is the top runner for Fullerton and among the best community college cross-country runners in Southern California.

But Beltran hasn’t had much formal training at distance running, and Keifer is working to find the style that will work best for him.

Marcial grew up about 100 miles south of Mexico City. He ran for a club team in Mexico but after graduating from high school, he came to the United States in the fall of 1985. He enrolled at Fullerton last spring.

“He has a lot to learn,” Keifer said. “But his idea is to go out and run hard every time. It’s really hard to gauge what he is capable of. He is the best distance runner I’ve had at this stage of his career.”

In September, Beltran placed third at the Fresno Invitational and second at the MiraCosta Invitational. Earlier this month, he was fifth at the UC Irvine Invitational and won the large school division race at the Mount San Antonio Invitational.

By far, the Mt. SAC race has been his most impressive performance--considering the circumstances. Running in a thick fog, he took a wrong turn midway through the race, ending up about 40 meters off the course. Once he discovered his mistake, he turned and started after the two runners who had passed him after his wrong turn.

“I looked up the hill and could see them in front of me,” Beltran said. “I didn’t know if I could catch them.”

But by the time he had run the switchbacks up the hill, Beltran had passed one runner. He passed the other on the flats with about half a mile to go and went on to win the race by 11 seconds.

“I like running in all places, but I do well in hills,” Beltran said. “I used to run behind the cows in the hills in Mexico. Maybe that is why.”

Last Friday, Keifer and Beltran decided that Beltran should stay behind the leaders in a South Coast Conference meet with Long Beach and Mt. San Antonio colleges.

Keifer wanted to see how well Beltran would do if he held back and didn’t charge to the front as he usually does.

Beltran stayed just behind John Vance of Mt. San Antonio and Uriel Rivera of Long Beach, but the pair easily outsprinted him in the final 150 yards. Vance won with a time of 20 minutes. Rivera, who was the junior national 1,500-meter champion in his native Columbia, finished second on the flat El Dorado Park course at 20:01. Beltran, who said he needs to work on his speed, finished third at 20:11.

“That’s all right,” Keifer said. “We’ll get it. We just need him to run a hard last mile and try and burn the other runners off before they can kick. . . . I still think we will also need a season of track to see what is best for him.”

The fate of the Saddleback College women’s basketball team may be decided today in an athletic department meeting at Saddleback.

Saddleback last season was 0-10 in the Orange Empire Conference. The school lost three players this season because of transfers or injuries.

“We’re just going to meet and see where we stand,” said Saddleback Athletic Director Keith Caulkins. “We don’t want to cancel the program, but we need to look at the situation closer and decide what would be best for the school and the program.”

Community College Notes The Cypress wrestling team continued its impressive performances this season, winning the Palomar tournament. Frank Trujillo (at 129 pounds), a transfer from Cal State Fullerton, and Jose Orozco (170) are 10-0. Art Orozco, Jose’s brother, is 9-1 wrestling at 153. All three were on the all-tournament team. . . . The Golden West women’s volleyball team (13-1 overall, 5-0 in the South Coast Conference) remains the top-ranked team in the state. Grossmont is second.