Track and Field / John Ortega : Problems With Injury, Academics Pursue Alsen at Arkansas

As a Granada Hills High senior in 1988, Ian Alsen was one of the nation’s most highly recruited distance runners.

But after winning the 1,600 and 3,200 meters in the prestigious Arcadia Invitational in April of last year, Alsen has struggled both on and off the track.

He was ruled academically ineligible in May of ‘88--which prevented him from competing in the City Section and State championships--and a strained muscle in his right calf hampered him in open races.

The recurring injury was particularly troublesome in last year’s Golden West Invitational in Sacramento, a meet that showcases some of the best seniors in the nation.

Alsen was running in the lead pack in the 3,000 meters for the first six laps but faded to fifth when his leg cramped with 600 meters left.

“It was very painful,” Alsen said shortly after the Golden West meet. “I was feeling good, and suddenly, my leg just cramped. . . . There was nothing I could do about it.”

The condition improved last summer as Alsen prepared for his freshman cross-country season at Arkansas, but the pain returned once he began training in the hills surrounding the Fayetteville campus.

Doctors initially diagnosed the problem as compartment syndrome, a condition in which a muscle expands during exercise and presses against the surrounding sheath, causing pain, but Alsen said that it was the result of running over different terrain.

“There are a lot of hills around the campus and my legs weren’t used to constantly running on that surface,” said Alsen, who had high school bests of 1 minute, 56 seconds in the 800, 4:09.67 in the 1,600 and 8:59.54 in the 3,200. “Plus I wasn’t use to the high intensity level of the workouts. There were a lot less easy days than before.”

The injury, combined with homesickness, also affected Alsen in the classroom, where he continued to struggle.

“The first semester was real hard and I think it affected my grades,” said Alsen, who redshirted the cross-country and track seasons. “You’re far away from home in a completely different town and you don’t really have any close friends. But as time went by, I got over that and my grades improved.”

His grades might have improved in the second semester, but Alsen will be academically ineligible for the upcoming semester unless he passes a three-unit history class at Cal State Northridge this summer.

“It shouldn’t be a problem,” Alsen said. “I’m looking forward to going back there and running cross-country. I know what to expect this year. Things should be easier.”

Finish line ahead: Angela Burnham, who graduated from Rio Mesa High in June, is expected to conclude her track season with junior meets (for athletes 19 and under) in New Brunswick, Canada, and Providence, R.I., later this month.

The two-time defending state champion in the 100 and 200 meters, Burnham will run in both of those events and possibly the 400 relay in a dual meet against Canada on Friday and Saturday and in an international meet at Brown University on July 22-23.

Although she also has been invited to compete in a special high school 100 race in the Jack in the Box Invitational at UCLA on Aug. 6, she doesn’t plan to run, citing fatigue after a long season that began in the Sunkist Invitational in January.

Rio Mesa co-Coach Brian FitzGerald said that Burnham, who will start classes at UCLA in the fall, could use a break from competition.

“Track just isn’t that important to her at the moment,” FitzGerald said. “She’s got a lot of other things going on in her life right now--like getting ready for college--so her mind’s on other things. . . . She hasn’t been as intense in her workouts this year as she was at this time last year.”

Last year, Burnham was training for the Olympic Trials, in which she set a national age-16 record of 11.28 seconds in the 100, moving her to third on the all-time U. S. high school list.

“That was the biggest meet for her last year,” FitzGerald said. “This year, the state meet was.”

Coaching change: Dave DeLong has replaced Ed Chaidez as the boys’ cross-country coach at Canyon High.

DeLong has coached the Canyon boys’ track team for the past two years after a two-year stint at Burroughs, during which he directed both the cross-country and track squads.

Chaidez resigned his position to pursue a Masters degree in education and an administrative credential from the University of La Verne. He will continue to teach at Canyon.

Chaidez, the 1975 NCAA Division II champion in the six mile for Cal State Northridge, turned the Canyon program into one of the Valley area’s best during his four seasons at the school.

After failing to qualify for the Southern Section 4-A Division championships in 1986, Canyon placed fifth and fourth, respectively, in 1987 and ‘88, and finished seventh in last year’s state Division I cross-country championships at Fresno’s Woodward Park in November.

“The motivation is very high at Canyon High right now,” Chaidez said. “I see no problems with that team right now. They should be strong again.”

Dave Hartman is expected to lead Canyon, which will have five of its top eight runners returning from last year’s team. Hartman placed seventh in last year’s Division I championships as a sophomore.

Add Canyon: After a stellar cross-country campaign, Hartman was expecting similar success on the track. But an instability problem with his left kneecap hampered him late in the season and he failed to qualify for the Southern Section 4-A final in the 3,200 meters.

“I felt good in the early part of the season,” said Hartman, who ran a personal best of 9 minutes, 26.95 seconds to place fifth in the two mile in the National Scholastic Indoor championships in Annapolis, Md., in March. “But then my knee started acting up and I was forced to miss a lot of training time.”

Hartman’s running was limited to light jogging and racing in the latter part of the season, and it showed in his performances.

“I couldn’t run any track workouts and that killed me,” said Hartman, who has been training consistently for the past three weeks. “When the pack took off in the (Southern Section) prelims, I couldn’t go with them. I didn’t have anything to respond with.”