Arreola Wins Berth on Team for World Meet : Track: CSUN runner places third at 1,500 meters in U.S. championships. Marion Jones places fourth in 200, lowers high national school record.

Darcy Arreola is a difficult woman to impress.

As a high school senior at San Diego’s La Mesa Grossmont High, Arreola was named a high school track All-American. And during 4 1/2 years at Cal State Northridge, she earned nine NCAA Division II and two Division I All-American certificates in cross-country and track.

But nothing Arreola had done on the track satisfied her. Until Saturday.

Two weeks ago, Arreola won the Division I women’s 1,500-meter title and Saturday she ran a personal best of 4 minutes 9.32 seconds to finish third in The Athletics Congress 1,500 final at Randalls Island in New York. The latter performance qualified Arreola for the U. S. team that will compete in the World Championships in Tokyo, Aug. 24-Sept. 2.

“The NCAA meet was a big deal, but this is even bigger,” said Arreola, who became the first Northridge athlete to make a national track team since Alice Brown won the 100 in the 1980 Olympic Trials. “The NCAA meet established me as one of the best collegiate runners in the country, but this means I’m one of the best in the U.S., period.”

Suzy Favor-Hamilton of the Reebok Racing Club timed 4:06.13 to win the race and Pattisue Plumer of Nike International was second in 4:06.59.

Arreola, competing for Nike Coast, kicked past Alisa Hill (4:09.70) of the Southern California Cheetahs in the final 10 meters to place third and grab the final qualifying berth.

Marion Jones of Rio Mesa High just missed making the national team in the 200, finishing fourth despite setting a national high school record of 22.76.

Jones, who had finished a distant eighth in the 100 final Friday, lowered the previous high school record of 22.77, set by Chandra Cheeseborough of Ribault High in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1975. But more important on this day was the fact that she finished only 0.04 seconds behind third-place finisher Esther Jones of LSU.

Gwen Torrence of Nike South won the race in 22.38 and Dannette Young of Reebok was second in 22.44.

“I wasn’t even thinking about the record,” said Jones, who had run her previous best of 22.87 in the Arcadia Invitational in April. “I came out of the blocks well, but not great, then really blasted the straightaway. . . . Fourth was great. Third would have been a little better, but I’m not disappointed. I’m ecstatic.”

In the 1,500, Arreola, whose previous best of 4:11.46 came in the NCAA meet, was seventh with 600 meters left. She moved into fourth with a lap to go but was still 10 meters behind Hill with 170 meters remaining.

“‘I just concentrated on really taking off with a 200 to go,” said Arreola, who ran the last 400 in 64.8 seconds and the final 800 in 2:11.0. “But I really didn’t think I had a chance at third until about 50 meters to go. Then I just kept telling myself, ‘You can get her. You can get her.’ ”