Now Franke Has a New Attitude : Track and field: Success in Pac-10 meet helps former Canyon standout, who will compete in NCAAs, turn things around.

The biggest problem Allison Franke faced during her track and field career at Canyon High School was trying to decide which event to work on next. Hurdles? Long jump? Triple jump? Discus? Franke competed in all of them, usually with considerable success.

And confidence? It was rarely a concern for Franke, who approached every competition with focus and poise.

But at some point during her college career, that changed. Franke, now a USC junior, gradually became bogged down by insecurity and drained of self-assurance. She was training and competing--and thinking about training and competing--in a fog of doubt.

Until recently, that is. Since last week’s Pacific 10 Conference championships, in which she placed second in the discus and javelin, Franke said she feels like an all-new Allison. She posted season bests in the discus (166-5) and javelin (164-4). She said she feels ready, steady and strong--not to mention enthused.

This week, Franke will be at the NCAA track championships at Austin, Tex. While her best marks were only provisional qualifying standards, they were superior enough, she said, to grant her an extra berth in the competition.

A competition for which she’s more than ready, especially compared to last year.

“These days, I’m just more in tune mentally,” said Franke, The Times Orange County female track athlete of the year in 1988 and 1989. “I don’t want to say I dreaded last year but . . . I did have a more negative attitude.”

Franke graduated from Canyon in 1989 as one of the top multi-event athletes in Orange County history. Her best in the discus, 160-6, is third-best on the county’s all-time list, and was sixth-best nationally her senior year.

She also had top marks in the long jump (18-5), triple jump (38-4 1/2), and 100-meter hurdles (14.91 seconds). All are still among the best in OC history.

She accepted a full scholarship to Southern Methodist, where she was an instant success, especially as a freshman. She won Southwest Conference titles in the discus and javelin, and was named the conference’s most valuable athlete.

That was great, Franke said. But not great enough to make up for what she missed, namely the Southern California lifestyle. She missed the beach, the mountains, the desert, the malls. She asked SMU to release her from her scholarship, and to her surprise, her request was granted and she transferred to USC.

“In the Southwest Conference, when I was there, there wasn’t much competition,” said Franke, a six-time Southern Section champion while in high school. “I won all the time. I knew if I came to the Pac-10 I’d have much more competition.”

To say the least. Suddenly, Franke finds herself competing against the best in the country. One of her longtime high school rivals, Dawn Dumble of Bakersfield, is over on the west side of town, at UCLA.

In its May issue, Track & Field News picked Dumble, a sophomore, to win the NCAA shotput and place second in the discus. The magazine’s predictions go as far as 10th place in each event. Franke’s name is not mentioned, neither in the discus nor the javelin.

That’s OK, she says. As for Dumble, she’s happy to see her succeed, and says she loves to watch her compete as Dumble has so much spirit. As for herself, well, Franke admits that after a sub-par transitional year in 1991, she doesn’t expect a lot of respect.

“I felt like I was floating last year,” said Franke, who has had three coaches in three years. “I didn’t really know what was going on. When you start to have poor performances, it’s hard mentally more than anything. It was really difficult.”

Nor did it help Franke that she was injured most of last season. A severely twisted ankle limited her flexibility and range of motion--critical to technique events. Besides that, it hurt.

But this year, gradually, she started seeing improvement. Not only in her athletic performances, but also in her outlook.

“My coach (Mike Bailey) said success breeds success,” Franke said. “That’s just what happened in the last three weeks. At Pac-10s, I went 164-4 on my last attempt in the javelin. That gave me a lot of confidence. The next day, during the discus, I felt totally relaxed, like a different athlete.

“Now, I have fun at the competitions. I don’t get all stressed.”

And next year, she said, she’ll focus on an entirely different event--the heptathlon. She’s not new to the six-event competition--she placed sixth at the Pac-10 championships last week--but she’s never focused all her energies on it.

“I really like it because it’s so intense,” Franke said of the event, which features the long jump, hurdles, javelin, high jump, 200 and 800.

“Every time I’ve done one, I’d finish and say, ‘I want to do that again! I love it.’ ”

High school days are here again.