TRACK / STATE JC CHAMPIONSHIPS : Ingalls Braced for Stern Test in Decathlon Final

For Jeff Ingalls of Moorpark College, the easy part of the decathlon is over.

Now comes the hard part.

Ingalls, competing in his second decathlon, was in second place with 3,494 points Friday after the first day of competition in the state junior college track and field championships at Long Beach Veterans Stadium. But Ingalls, a 400-meter specialist, lacks seasoning in today’s five events--the 110-meter high hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, and 1,500 meters.

“The second day will be interesting,” Ingalls predicted earlier this week.

Ingalls trails Todd Lockwood of Mt. San Antonio College by 157 points despite an uneven first-day performance.

His high point came in the high jump, where he cleared 6 feet 6 1/4 inches. His low point came in the long jump, where he jumped 19-5 1/2 after jumping more than 21 feet in dual meets earlier in the season.

Ingalls had marks of 11.1 seconds in the 100 meters, 35-0 1/2 in the shotput and 49.98 in the 400 in Friday’s other events.

Elsewhere on the track, Glendale’s Oved Aguirre placed fourth in the men’s 10,000 meters and teammate America Rivas was ninth in the women’s 5,000.

Aguirre, a sophomore from San Fernando High, was hopeful of duplicating his second-place finish from last week’s Southern California championships.

But the stress of running the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 at the Western State Conference meet April 24, then the 5,000 and the 10,000 in last week’s Southern California meet, apparently took a toll.

“His legs are dead,” Glendale Coach Eddie Lopez said. “He’s really tired.”

Aguirre timed 31:00.27 in the race, which was won by Riverside’s Passmore Furusa in a meet-record 29:39.37.