RUNNING : CSUN Jumpers Facing High Standards in ’91

Del Rey League rivals in high school, Walt Stewart and Dave Swanson should give Cal State Northridge an explosive high-jumping tandem during the 1991 track and field season.

Stewart (6-foot-3), a 1986 graduate of Notre Dame High, won the 1989 NCAA Division II title as a Matador junior before redshirting this past season because of injuries.

Swanson (6-5), a 1987 Alemany graduate, finished second for Glendale College in the state junior college championships in May. He signed a letter of intent (to compete in basketball and track) with Northridge last Friday.

Stewart, second on the all-time Matador list with a personal best of 7 feet 2 1/2 inches, and Swanson (with a mark of 7-1) have the potential to dominate at the NCAA Division II level, but with Northridge moving to Division I in all sports except football this fall, they will have to improve substantially to make their presence felt.

The automatic qualifying standard for the men’s high jump in this year’s Division I meet was 7-4 1/2 and the provisional standard was 7-1 3/4. Charles Austin of Southwest Texas State won the NCAA title at 7-7 3/4, and Kevin Clements of Illinois State placed eighth--the last scoring position--with a 7-3 jump.

Qualifier: Although Swanson raised his personal best to 7-1 in the state championships, the mark probably will appear on the national list (the top 50 marks are published) with an asterisk because it came in a jump-off.

After Swanson and Gio Sprattling of Hartnell each cleared 6-11 3/4 on their second attempt during the regular competition and missed three times at 7-1 3/4, a jump-off was employed to determine the winner.

The first height in the jump-off was 7-1 3/4 and both contestants missed. The bar was then moved to 7-0, which Sprattling and Swanson each cleared.

They cleared the bar again at 7-1, before missing at 7-2 3/4, 7-1, and 7-0.

Sprattling finally won when he cleared 6-11 and Swanson missed.

Content Monarch: Melanie Clarke failed to meet the World Junior (19 and under) Championship qualifying standard in the heptathlon in The Athletics Congress Junior championships in Fresno last week, but the Valley College freshman did achieve her primary goal: victory.

Clarke, 18, won the two-day, seven-event competition with a personal-best 5,080 points, ahead of Edwina Ammonds (4,958) of Kings River College, Kallen Madden (4,931) of Texas A & M and favorite Tish Milligan of the Knoxville Track Club (4,821).

The qualifying standard for the World Junior meet in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, next month is 5,300 points.

“I wanted to win,” Clarke said. “I accomplished what I wanted to do. Even if I qualified (for the world junior championships), I don’t think that I would go.

“I’m tired after such a long season and I need to give it a rest and try to get stronger.”

Clarke won the heptathlon in the Southern California qualifying meet in April with 4,934 points, then took the state junior college title in May with a score of 5,034.

Her performance in Fresno was particularly impressive because she set personal bests in only one event.

After running 15.88 seconds in the 100-meter low hurdles at the start of the meet Thursday, Clarke was 11th in the 14-woman field.

But by the end of the first day, which also included the high jump (5-5), shotput (37-5 3/4) and 200 (25.09), Clarke was third with 3,026 points, 15 better than her personal-best pace.

“I could have done a lot better in the high jump and long jump,” said Clarke, who has a heptathlon best of 5-8 in the high jump. “I was so disappointed after the high jump that I almost cried. I’ve never been that upset.

“It’s my best event, but I haven’t had time to work on it because I’ve been concentrating on my other events.”

That concentration was evident in the javelin, in which she recorded a personal-best 121-1 after leaping 17-9 1/4 in the long jump to start Friday’s competition.

Third in the overall standings after the long jump, Clarke took the lead for good in the javelin when she improved her previous best by more than nine feet.

She followed that with a time of 2 minutes 24.11 seconds in the 800--the fastest in the field--which gave her a personal-best total by 46 points.

“I’m happy that I won,” Clarke said, “but there are still a lot of areas where I can improve.”

Rest for the weary: Her performances did not show it, but Lisa Gill of Cal State Northridge was plagued by a recurring injury to her right knee during the past season.

Gill placed fourth in the heptathlon with a personal-best 5,031 points in the Division II meet and won the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. title, and although she contemplated redshirting in March could not because she had competed in too many meets.

“When I found out I couldn’t (redshirt), I just tried to make the best of things,” said Gill, a 1988 graduate of Alemany High. “I figured I’d better get going and qualify for nationals.”

Gill, who posted a Division II provisional qualifying mark of 4,741 points in December, exceeded the automatic standard with a then-personal best of 4,936 to win the CCAA meet in May. She cracked the 5,000-point barrier in the Division II meet later in the month.

“(The knee) really didn’t bother me too much on the first day of nationals,” Gill said. “But it really ached during the second day.”

With the injury having been diagnosed as chondromalacia--a deterioration of the knee ligaments--Gill hasn’t run a step, thrown a javelin or put a shot since the Division II meet in hopes that it will heal with rest.

“We’re hoping that it won’t require surgery,” Northridge Coach Don Strametz said. “That’s kind of a last alternative.”

Because of the injury, Gill plans to redshirt the 1991 college track and field season and instead compete for Nike Coast.

“I won’t compete in as many meets next year, and I may not do any heptathlons,” said Gill, a two-time All-American. “I’ll just try to improve in my weak events. I’d like to get good in the (100-meter low) hurdles and the 800.”