Track and Field / John Ortega : Weary Arreola Disappointed With Long Season

She lowered her school record in the 1,500 meters, won her second consecutive NCAA Division II title in the 3,000 and placed third in the 1,500 in the Division I meet in Provo, Utah. But despite those achievements, Darcy Arreola was disappointed with her junior season at Cal State Northridge.

“I expected to run a lot faster than I did,” said Arreola, who concluded her track season with a third-place finish in the mile run in the Jack in the Box Invitational at UCLA last Sunday. “I know I was in shape to run much faster than I did, but I never put it all together.”

Arreola started the season with personal bests--2 minutes, 5.73 seconds in the 800, 4:15.35 in the 1,500 and 9:13.34 in the 3,000--that she thought she was capable of improving by substantial margins.

“I didn’t think 4:10 or 4:11 was unreasonable in the 1,500,” Arreola said, “and I thought I could run close to nine minutes, or slightly under, in the 3,000.”

But she ran only 4:14.15 in the former and 9:18.24 in the latter, leading her to re-evaluate her racing schedule for next season.

“I’m glad the season’s over,” said Arreola, who will take two weeks off before starting to train for the fall cross-country season. “I’m pretty tired, both physically and mentally. Not as bad as I was last year, but I’m still tired.”

Arreola redshirted the 1988 cross-country season after an arduous track campaign, and although she raced less this season, she said she still raced too much.

“I think the length of the season was fine, but there were just too many races,” Arreola said.

Northridge Coach Don Strametz disagrees. He said that Arreola was physically capable of reaching her goals but failed because of the slow early pace so prevalent in U. S. racing today.

“It’s very difficult to run fast races here,” Strametz said. “Besides (Mary) Slaney, there’s no one in the U. S. who’s willing to push the early pace in a race. Everyone has a tendency to sit around and kick at the end. There’s plenty of races where it’s easy to get pulled to a 4:20 or 4:25, but if you want to run 4:10, it’s really difficult.”

Statistics support Strametz’s contention.

Besides a 4:07.58 indoor mark by Slaney, who has been bothered by injuries during most of the outdoor season, Briton Teena Colebrook of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has run the fastest 1,500 on U. S. soil this season, a 4:09.69 at Santa Monica College in May.

Strametz said that Arreola is in a difficult bind because she isn’t strong enough to force the early pace in the major races and still hang on to finish well.

“She needs a fast early pace to run fast times and she hasn’t been getting them,” Strametz said. “It’s just the way it is in American distance running right now.”

The 1,500 at The Athletics Congress Championships in San Jose was typical of a domestic race. The field came through the 400 mark in a slowish 70.5 seconds and the 800 in 2:20.1 before picking up the pace.

Unable to stay with the leaders in the last 700 meters, Arreola finished a distant seventh in 4:18.35. Regina Jacobs, a 1981 graduate of Argyll Academy (now Campbell Hall) in North Hollywood, won in 4:11.80.

Arreola, who turned 21 last Friday, hopes next season will be her breakthrough year. She plans to race on the European summer circuit and, to improve her chances, has undertaken a weight-training regimen.

Add Arreola: Although her mile time of 4:35.81 at UCLA was a California Collegiate Athletic Assn. record, her best in the 1,500 is actually faster, converting to a 4:34.48 mile.

Good for the long run: Bryan Dameworth is the two-time defending state Division I cross-country champion, but the senior-to-be at Agoura High has no intention of resting on his laurels this season.

Dameworth, runner-up in the 3,200 meters at the state track championships in June, has increased his summer training regimen by 20 miles a week and already has reaped benefits from the extra mileage.

He ran a personal best of 4:14.4 to place third in the high school mile at the Jack in the Box Invitational on Sunday, despite not having done any intense speed work since early June.

“I’ve run a few repeat miles,” said Dameworth, who has run 9:00.27 for 3,200 meters, “but besides that, it’s been strictly long runs.”

Long runs that have totaled 80 miles a week and left Dameworth with that tired-yet-strong feeling so familiar to distance runners.

“I’m having more trouble getting up in the morning,” joked Dameworth, who frequently runs five miles in the morning and 10 miles in the evening. “But I feel much stronger. I think the PR (personal record) in the mile was a result of that strength.”

Agoura Coach Bill Duley, who is Dameworth’s stepfather, said that he increased his charge’s mileage because Dameworth, 6-foot-3 1/2, 165 pounds, has matured physically and because his times have not improved as much as expected.

“I’ve always been wary of starting double workouts too early in a runner’s career,” Duley said. “But I think Bryan is capable of handling it physically. The doctors say he’s not going to grow much more so we decided now was the time to increase his mileage.

“Bryan’s performances had plateaued off his previous training. I think he got the most he could out of his training.”

Add Dameworth: Defending his state title and improving upon his fourth-place finish in the Kinney national championships are two of Dameworth’s major goals this season.

But he would also like to run in The Athletics Congress junior (for athletes 19 and under) championships, a meet he hasn’t competed in before because of financial constraints.

“We’ve thought about it in the past, but there’s always been the money factor,” Dameworth said. “But I’d like to look at it a little bit more closely this season.”

Better late than never: Marion Jones of the West Valley Eagles track club was a last-minute addition to the girls’ high school 100 at the Jack in the Box meet, but she made the most of the opportunity by winning the race in a personal best of 12.01.

Jones, 13, who will be a high school freshman in the fall, easily defeated a field that included Charlotte Vines (second in 12.22), the fourth-place finisher in the state championships in June. Angela Burnham of Rio Mesa High, the national junior champion in the 200, declined an invitation to compete.

Vines, a recent graduate of San Marcos High in Santa Barbara, will attend CSUN on a partial athletic scholarship in the fall.