U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL: ORANGE COUNTY’S DAY : LOS ANGELES 1991 : New Coach Gives Her a New Outlook and Goal : Track: Middle-distance runner didn’t get much coaching at Cal State Fullerton. But now she has found someone to guide her.

Unlike many track and field athletes, Sonja Cooper-Sutherland didn’t go through the typical post-collegiate void after she graduated from Cal State Fullerton in 1989.

She wasn’t at a loss without a team to support her. She wasn’t feeling blue because there was no coach to motivate her. And turning in her Titan uniform didn’t move her to tears.

Of course, finishing your college career isn’t such an emotional moment when you never had much of a team, as was Cooper-Sutherland’s case.

“I never really had a coach in college,” said Cooper-Sutherland, a 26-year-old Anaheim resident. “And there were just three of us (athletes) out there everyday . . . basically coaching ourselves.”

Enter Benny Brown, 1976 Olympian and former standout at UCLA.

Brown became an assistant coach--specializing in sprints and middle distances--at Fullerton in the fall of 1989, joining head Coach John Elders. Although Cooper-Sutherland never met him while she was in college, Brown now guides her every workout.

The results have been impressive.

Cooper-Sutherland, who before meeting Brown had never run the 800 meters faster than 2 minutes 12 seconds, trimmed an impressive seven seconds off her best time during her first season with him, running 2:05.34 at the Jack-In-The-Box Invitational at UCLA last July.

Last month, she ran 2:04.01--a career best--at a meet in Los Altos.

Friday at the U.S. Olympic Festival track competition at UCLA’s Drake Stadium, Cooper-Sutherland finished fourth in the 800 in 2:07.51. It was not the time or place for which she had hoped.

Cooper-Sutherland initially was in good position, running with the leaders as they passed the 400-meter mark in 61.7 seconds. But she began to struggle 100 meters later.

Jane Brooker of Pottstown, Mass., won in 2:05.21 and Cynthia Bayles was second in 2:05.46. Marilyn Gilliard passed Cooper-Sutherland in the final 100 meters for the bronze medal in 2:06.74.

“The first lap felt OK, but then my whole body just tightened up,” Cooper-Sutherland said. “I was just praying to pull it off; I normally would be able to catch them down the backstretch. I was struggling for third, and then I didn’t even get that.”

Cooper-Sutherland started racing when she was 8. At 9, she won her first race--an 800 in a youth meet at Mt. San Antonio College. Her memories of that race are sweet.

“I took off on the first lap really fast,” she said. “I was just running, running, running. . . . When I crossed the line, my dad was there. He picked me up and hugged me but I was just dead in his arms. He was so proud.”

She went on to run nearly every distance at Rialto Eisenhower High School. She went to Azusa Pacific on a partial scholarship, then transferred to Fullerton during her sophomore year. Through those years, though, she seemed destined to run one time--2:12.

Now she says she’s aiming for a time under two minutes, which would rank her among the best Americans ever.

“If you’d asked me two years ago if I thought I could run sub-two, I’d have said ‘No way! ‘ “ she said. “But now, yeah, I can see myself doing it. I’ve done the work. I just have to do it.”

Brown agrees wholeheartedly. In fact, he expects her to make the Olympic team next summer.

“When I found out how she had been coached in the past, it was ridiculous,” said Brown, who was helping officiate Friday’s competition. “Our main concern was getting her strong--and geared for speed.”

Cooper-Sutherland increased her quality training--increasing her intensity in speed workouts--and worked on running controlled and relaxed.

It hasn’t been easy, though. Cooper-Sutherland works full-time as a program director for a human services center in La Puente. Her job consists of working with children ages 8 to 13 with behavioral problems, especially those with low self-esteem.

After a full day of work, she drives to Fullerton College for her workout with Brown. She normally doesn’t get home until 9:30 p.m. That doesn’t seem to bother her husband, Joel Sutherland, her biggest fan.

Joel, who ran track at Oxnard College and Cal State Los Angeles, joins his wife at the track, jogging along during warm-ups and occasionally running alongside her during her track intervals.

Better yet, he does most of the cooking--creole jambalaya is his specialty.

“Joel’s my biggest fan,” Cooper-Sutherland said. “He’s always telling me that he believes in me.”

Considering her recent improvement, that’s probably not a difficult thing to do.