Ezinwa Makes a Dash for Acceptance : Mt. SAC Relays: Azusa Pacific sprinter will go against Lewis at 100 meters today.

Track and field fans might never find out whether the time of 9.91 seconds that was credited to Nigeria’s Davidson Ezinwa last weekend in the 100 meters was legitimate, but he has an opportunity today in the Mazda-Mt. San Antonio College Relays at Walnut to prove that he is for real.

Ezinwa, a junior at Azusa Pacific, will be tested in a 100-meter field that includes four of the top seven ranked sprinters in the United States last year, most notably two-time Olympic champion and world record-holder Carl Lewis.

That race should be the main event of the 34th annual Mt. SAC Relays’ invitational competition, which features several other Olympic or world champions, such as Roger Kingdom, Evelyn Ashford, Greg Foster, Steve Lewis and Michael Johnson, in one of the first major meets leading to the Summer Olympics at Barcelona, Spain.

In the traditional distance carnival Friday night, John Trautmann, a former Georgetown runner who was ranked fourth in the United States last year, broke a seven-year-old meet record with a time of 13:20.19 in the 5,000 meters.

The previous record of 13:22.37 was held by Mexico’s Mauricio Gonzales.

Late Friday night, meet officials were attempting to sort out the confusion in the race caused when several Mexican runners, who were refused admission because the field was too large, took numbers from compatriots who had earlier run in the 10,000 and joined the competitors at the start.

At one point in the race, the men who were running first and second were identified by public address announcer Scott Davis only by their numbers because he did not have names available.

The women’s 3,000 was fast for this early in the season as nine women ran under the Olympic qualifying time of 9:10. PattiSue Plumer, the lawyer from Stanford who was ranked first in the United States and eighth in the world last year, held off Shelly Steely in the backstretch to win in 8:50.07.

The men’s 10,000 was equally competitive, although the times were less impressive. Steve Plasencia and Todd Williams traded the lead several times over the final fifth of the race before Plasencia took control with 200 meters remaining to win in 28:05.86. Williams was hand-timed in 28:05.8.

It was only the second time since 1980 that the winner of this race failed to break 28 minutes, but both Plasencia and Williams met their objectives of running faster than the Olympic qualifying time of 28:07.

Only two sprinters, Carl Lewis and Leroy Burrell, have officially run faster than the 9.91 that was credited to Ezinwa, 20, in a meet last Saturday at Azusa. In tying Dennis Mitchell as the third-fastest performer ever, Ezinwa reportedly ran into a headwind gauged at 5.2 miles per hour.

But the sport’s statisticians are skeptical about both the clock and the wind readings. According to USA Today, Track & Field News editor Jeff Hollobaugh has requested a video.

Ezinwa’s coach, Terry Franson, says, however, that Ezinwa eventually will be recognized as one of the world’s best sprinters, perhaps as early as this afternoon.

In other events today:

--In the 400 meters, Olympic champion Steve Lewis, formerly of UCLA, will meet two others ranked among the top 10 last year in the United States, Jeff Reynolds and USC’s Quincy Watts, as well as Nigeria’s Innocent Egbunike and intermediate hurdler Danny Harris.

--Brazil’s Jose Luiz Barbosa, ranked No. 1 in the world last year, is favored in the 800 meters against a field that includes U.S. record-holder Johnny Gray.

--Two of the United States’ best female distance runners, Plumer and Suzy Hamilton, are entered at 1,500 meters in a field that also includes Mozambique’s Maria Mutola.

--A Santa Monica Track Club team of Carl Lewis, Burrell, Mark Witherspoon and Mike Marsh could be challenged in the 400-meter relay by a team representing Mazda that consists of Mitchell, Calvin Smith, Raymond Stewart and Frank Fredericks.

--Johnson, ranked No. 1 in the world last year at 200 and 400 meters, will run in the 800 and 1,600-meter relays.