Arreola Wins National Title in 1,500 Meters : College track: Northridge senior pushes the pace early to set up an easy victory in a school-record 4:11.46.

Darcy Arreola of Cal State Northridge exorcised several demons from past races by winning the women’s 1,500 meters in the NCAA Division I track and field championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., on Saturday.

Arreola had finished a disappointing seventh in the 1,500 in The Athletics Congress meet in 1989 and ’90 after the early pace had lagged and she was left behind in a kicker’s race.

But on Saturday, the fifth-year senior from La Mesa Grossmont High took the lead after the first 200 meters and was never seriously challenged, winning in a personal-best and school-record time of 4 minutes 11.46 seconds.

Jasmin Jones of Tennessee, the runner-up in the 800 on Friday, was a distant second in 4:14.87 and Stephanie Best of Cornell placed third in 4:16.19.

“The race wasn’t as difficult as I expected,” said Arreola, who had finished third in the 1,500 in the 1989 Division I meet. “It went as well as I had ever expected it to. I went over this race about a zillion times in my head last night, and it always came out this way.”

Arreola passed the first 400 meters in 64.9 seconds and the 800 in 2:14.7 before breaking the race open with about 550 meters remaining.

With a lap to go, Arreola (3:04.8) had a 10-meter advantage and she extended that by running the last 400 in 66.7.

“I felt very comfortable and in control,” said Arreola, who finished 12th in the 1990 Division I cross-country championships. “I never felt like I was in danger of not winning, or that I couldn’t have turned back a challenge.”

Arreola, who became the first Northridge individual to win a major college track title since Sandra Myers (400-meter low hurdles, long jump) and Alice Brown (100 meters) turned the trick in the 1980 Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women championships in Eugene, stuck perfectly to her pre-race strategy, according to Northridge Coach Don Strametz.

“The plan was to wait for the first 200 and see if (Maria) Akraka (of Sweden and UC Irvine) was going to push the pace,” Strametz said. “When she didn’t, Darcy moved into the lead and took it out from there, just like we had planned.”

Although Strametz had encouraged Arreola to force the early pace in previous championship meets, he said she lacked the confidence to do so until this year.

“She’s just really matured in the last few months,” Strametz said. “She’s starting to really think about what she’s doing in races now. Before, she just ran . . .

“She had the ability to do this a couple of years ago, but she lacked the confidence.”

Arreola, who will run in the 1,500 in the TAC meet at Randalls Island in New York in two weeks, concurred.

“We’ve talked about this for a while,” she said. “But I wasn’t quite ready for it before. Now I know this is the best way for me to run.

“I just feel a lot better when I run fast from the start.”