SIDETRACKED : Dave Walsh’s Promising Running Career Veered Off Course After He Left CSUN

Dave Walsh made history for Cal State Northridge in 1986 when he won the NCAA Division II West regional cross-country championship.

He was the first Northridge runner to win the West regional title, coasting to a 21-second victory at Lake Perris in Riverside County a week after winning the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. title by 23 seconds at San Luis Obispo.

Although Walsh finished a disappointing 38th in the national championships that year, he appeared headed toward the pinnacle of Division II distance running.

Times have changed. So has Walsh’s luck. He now competes for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and will be no more than a long-shot Saturday in the West regional in San Luis Obispo.

“It’s been a very frustrating year,” said Walsh, a 1981 graduate of Canyon High. “It’s one thing to have one bad race--that happens to everyone. But, my whole season has been a series of bad races.”

Walsh’s career has not gone according to plan since he transferred from Northridge to San Luis Obispo in the fall of 1987. After sitting out last season in accordance with NCAA transfer requirements, Walsh figured things would be back to normal this season.

“I expected to be the No. 1 or 2 runner,” said Walsh, who has usually finished between fourth and seventh on the team. “But I’ve been in a slump.”

Neither Walsh, a 25-year-old junior, nor Tom Henderson, San Luis Obispo’s coach, has been able to pinpoint a reason for Walsh’s season-long racing funk.

“We’ve talked a lot about it, but we can’t put a finger on it,” said Henderson, whose team is ranked third in the Division II poll. “He’s running very well in workouts. His fitness level is very high, but we haven’t been able to bring that out of him in the races.”

Walsh seemed to be approaching top form during a relay race at Cal State Hayward 2 weeks ago but followed that with a disappointing 18th-place finish in the CCAA championships at Bonelli Regional County Park in San Dimas last Saturday.

“I felt great at Hayward,” Walsh said. “I felt like I did in 1986. . . . But I just ran terribly at the CCAA meet. I went out hard and just fell apart.”

Walsh pushed the early pace at Hayward, but the tactic backfired on him at San Dimas where the hilly course proved unfriendly to front-runners.

Walsh said torn calf muscles that sidelined him for 2 months last spring have not affected his cross-country performances.

“The injury is 100%,” he said. “I had a great summer training. I ran 70 miles a week. Just like I did at Northridge.”

Henderson is frustrated but not necessarily surprised by Walsh’s slump. Henderson said that a year away from the team environment usually hurts athletes, and, in Walsh’s case, the effect may have been made more acute because he was the top gun at Northridge when he left.

“It’s just very difficult to come back and immediately fit right back into the picture,” Henderson said. “You’re out of the racing mode for a year and when you try to come back, things don’t feel exactly the same.”

Losing has not been easy on Walsh, but it has served as a learning experience.

“It’s made me more humble and I think that’s good,” he said. “When I was running well in 1986, I always wondered if people were treating me as Dave Walsh, the good runner, or Dave Walsh, the person. . . . This season has been frustrating, but it’s brought out my true character and I like what I see.”

Walsh liked what he saw at Northridge in 1986, but after running 14:23.1 for 5,000 meters and placing fifth in the 1987 Division II track championships, he headed north after a dispute with Matador Coach Don Strametz.

“I don’t feel real comfortable talking about this,” Walsh said. “But there was no communication with Strametz. It was like dealing with a political candidate. I could talk to him, but I couldn’t communicate with him.”

Strametz has refused to comment on the matter since Walsh’s departure when he said: “I don’t want to go into details right now. But I will say that this is Dave’s sixth school in the last seven semesters. I’ll let that speak for itself.”

Walsh attended Clackamas College in Oregon City, Ore., Moorpark College, College of the Canyons, Ventura College and CSUN before transferring to San Luis Obispo.

Walsh, a physical education major who intends to earn his degree and a teaching credential by 1990, said he has no regrets about the move to San Luis Obispo.

“Everything is going great, except for the running,” he said. “And that’s frustrating, but I’m trying not to let it get me down. I know things are going to get better.”