Arreola Looking for Fast Finish : Cross-country: Northridge senior expresses disappointment with her season heading into Division I championships.

No Cal State Northridge athlete appeared as prepared for the move from the NCAA Division II ranks to Division I this fall as distance runner Darcy Arreola.

Arreola, the 1989 Division II cross-country champion, had won three individual Division II track titles, had earned nine Division II All-American certificates in track and cross-country, and had placed third in the 1,500 meters in the 1989 Division I track championships since arriving at Northridge in five years ago.

This cross-country season, however, has been frustrating for Arreola, who will compete in the NCAA Division I championships at Pine Lakes Golf Course in Knoxville, Tenn., on Monday.

“I’ve been disappointed,” said Arreola, the lone Northridge qualifier for the national meet. “I think that’s why I’m really looking forward to nationals and the end of the season. I know that’s not the greatest attitude to have going into nationals, but I haven’t won a race yet. And I haven’t improved as much as I wanted to.” Last season Arreola won four of five cross-country races, including the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., Division II West regional and Division II titles.

This season she has finished second once, third twice and fourth twice.

After falling behind in her races, Arreola has been forced to battle for second--or worse. It is a notion as foreign to Arreola as liberalism is to Republicans.

“Before the season began, I thought I had a chance at winning Division I,” Arreola said. “But after (the) Stanford (Invitational), I started to realize that that probably won’t happen.”

Arreola has had her best cross-country season--lowering her personal best on the Stanford course by 39 seconds--but after being a dominant force in Division II, she won’t be one of the favorites when the women’s 5,000-meter race begins at 11 a.m. (EST) Monday.

“It’s hard to accept that I’m one of the unknowns,” the 22-year-old Arreola said. “It puts less pressure on me, but it’s hard to accept that you’re not going to be one of the ones they’re looking at.

“In the school newspaper the other day, (Northridge Coach Don) Strametz said that a good goal would be the top 10. I saw that and said, ‘Top 10?’ But then I realized that I’m going to be running against a lot of good girls that I’ve never run against, and that a top-10 finish would probably be a good goal.”

Arreola, a fifth-year senior, was a well-beaten third in the Stanford Invitational on Oct. 6, 29 seconds behind winner Suzy Favor of Wisconsin and 22 seconds behind Buffy Rabbitt of UC Irvine.

“Suzy was just so far ahead of me,” Arreola recalled with a laugh. “And she probably won’t be the No. 1 favorite on Monday.”

That role will fall to Michelle Dekkers of Indiana and South Africa, the 1988 NCAA Division I champion who defeated Favor for the Big Ten and District 4 titles.

“Dekkers appears to be the favorite,” Strametz said, “with (District 8 winner) Rabbitt looking for a finish in the top seven. . . . But a lot can happen in cross-country.”

Strametz linked Arreola’s early-season difficulties to her 70-miles-a-week regimen, more than she has ever run before.

“She was training through the meets,” Strametz said. “She was racing tired. She was not as fresh as some of the people she was running against.”

Arreola, the 10th ranked 1,500-meter runner in the country in 1989, concurred with Strametz.

“I kept telling myself, ‘Don’t worry about it. Just think about regionals and nationals, that’s all that matters.’ ” she said.

Based on Arreola’s fourth-place finish in the District 8 meet at Fresno’s Woodward Park last week, Strametz figures that things are going according to plan.

He has tapered Arreola’s training to less than 50 miles a week, and with a little fine-tuning, he expects her to be firing on all cylinders Monday.

“She ran her best race of the season at districts,” he said. “But she’s capable of running better. Physically, she was ready to run a great race at districts, but mentally she wasn’t all there.

“There were certain mental things that she didn’t do, like accelerating out of the curves. If she runs a great mental race at districts, she runs 15-20 seconds faster.”

The mental aspect of cross-country running is something that Arreola admittedly has never mastered. She made marked improvement in that area last season, but she has never been as aggressive in cross-country as in track.

“You put her within 10 feet of a track during track season and she becomes an animal,” Strametz said. “In cross-country, she works hard, but her attitude isn’t as intense. She is disciplined, but her work ethic has to go to another level to reach her potential.”

Arreola is aware of her mental shortcomings, but she is hopeful of rectifying them by the time she races in Knoxville.

“I don’t think I’ve been anywhere close to being mentally there (this season),” Arreola said. “I think (Strametz) would like to think that I’m a lot closer than I am. I’m really trying to improve in that area, but it’s just been hard this season. . . . It seems like I keep thinking about track when I should be concentrating on cross-country.

“Hopefully, I can end the season on a good note.”