Zorich Gives Moorpark Impetus for 4th Place : College track: Sophomore sparkles in the hammer, discus and shotput in the Southern California junior college championships.

There is more to throwing the hammer and the discus and putting the shot than brute strength.

Just ask Dan Zorich of Moorpark College.

Zorich won the hammer, placed second in the discus and finished third in the shotput to lead the Raiders to a fourth-place finish in the Southern California junior college track and field championships on Saturday at Santa Barbara City College.

“It’s all psychological,” the 6-foot-2, 215-pound Zorich said. “It’s all a mind game. At least it is for me. You can’t try and muscle the heck out of the thing. You’ve got to make sure your technique is good and just relax and let it happen.”

Zorich accounted for 24 points to help the Raiders (57) finish behind defending champion Long Beach City (177), Riverside (137) and Western State Conference rival Bakersfield (60).

Mt. San Antonio won the women’s meet with 123 points, followed by San Diego Mesa (80 1/2), defending champion El Camino (71), Long Beach (68) and Riverside (45 1/2).

“My throwers are going nuts,” Moorpark assistant John Keever said, beaming midway through the meet.

But none more so than Zorich, a sophomore from Agoura High who began the season with personal bests of 43 feet in the shot, 141-8 in the discus and 139-0 in the hammer.

Zorich began the meet by winning the hammer with a personal best and school record of 182-3.

He followed that with a personal best of 51-4 1/2 in the shot and capped his day with a personal best and school record of 159-5 in the discus.

“I wanted to throw 180 in the hammer, and once I did that everything else just fell into place,” Zorich said. “I usually don’t like throwing the shot, but today I (felt), ‘Let’s do it. Let’s get a good one.’ ”

In addition to Zorich, Moorpark received big efforts from Ty Wilcox, who placed second in the javelin with a throw of 189-2, and the 400- and 1,600-meter relay teams, which finished fifth and third, respectively.

The Raiders’ foursome of Bryan Krill, Darrick Gaines, Jeff Ingalls and Phil Antoine timed 41.08 seconds in the 400 relay and a school-record 3 minutes 10.40 seconds in the 1,600 relay.

Marcus Reed of Valley had a disappointing meet, finishing fourth in the 100 (wind-aided 10.50), seventh in the 200 (21.57) and 11th in the long jump (22-4 1/2). He also ran legs for the Monarchs’ 400 and 1,600 relay teams, which finished fourth in 40.68 and fifth in 3:11.08, respectively.

In the women’s meet, Deana Fuess of Moorpark ran a personal best of 4:42.08 to finish fourth in the 1,500, and Jean Harvey of Antelope Valley placed fourth in the 3,000 with a time of 10:23.12.