RUNNING / JOHN ORTEGA : Sprinter Brown, Howard Finish Out of the Running in U.S. Trials

The U. S. Olympic track and field trials in New Orleans have marked the end of an era for two athletes with ties to the region.

Alice Brown, a former standout for Cal State Northridge, was eliminated in the semifinals of the women’s 100 meters last week.

Sherri Howard, a 1980 graduate of Kennedy High, was eliminated in the semifinals of the women’s 400 on Monday.

With only the first three finishers in each event qualifying for the Olympic team, this summer’s Games in Barcelona will mark the first time since 1976 that neither Brown nor Howard will compete in the Games.

Brown, 31, burst upon the U. S. track scene in 1980 when she won the 100 meters in the Assn. for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women championships and the Olympic trials as a Northridge sophomore.

Although the U. S. boycotted the Games in Moscow that summer because of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, Brown won a silver medal in the 100 and a gold medal as a member of the 400 relay team in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Most of the then-Eastern bloc countries boycotted those Games in retaliation for the U.S.-led boycott in 1980.

Four years later, Brown picked up another gold medal as a member of the 400 relay team.

Howard, 30, won the 400 in the 1980 trials shortly after graduating from Kennedy, ran a leg on the gold-medal 1,600 relay team in 1984, and was a member of the silver-medal 1,600 relay team in ’88.

Although this was the first time during Howard’s career that she has failed to qualify for the finals of the 400 in the Olympic trials, she was pleased with her performances in New Orleans, which came only two months after she tore a muscle in her right calf while running an 800 in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays.

“I basically did what I did off a lot of experience, heart, desire and determination,” said Howard, who plans to race in Europe after the Olympics. “I wasn’t able to run much since the injury, but I still managed to improve in every round. I’m very happy about that.”

Howard’s semifinal time of 51.86 seconds was her fastest since the 1988 Olympic trials, when she finished fifth in 51.63.

“(The 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta are) definitely in the plans,” Howard said. “I might not race much in the next two years, but I expect to have a full season in 1995 and ’96.”

It is not known how much longer Brown will compete.

Family tradition: Denean Hill, Howard’s younger sister and an ’82 Kennedy graduate, qualified for her fourth consecutive Olympic team Wednesday when she placed fifth in the 400 (50.89) in the trials.

The top six in the men’s and women’s 100 and 400 qualify for their respective 400 and 1,600 relay teams.

Hill, 27, raced very little from 1989-91 after finishing sixth in the 400 in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.

First, she got married and took time off to have a son. Then she suffered a knee injury that sidelined her until January.

She ran only three 400s this season before the trials.

Add trials: Donna Mayhew of Glendale won the women’s javelin, and Victoria Herazo of Newhall placed second in the women’s 10-kilometer walk in the trials Monday to qualify for the U. S. team.

Mayhew, a 1978 graduate of Crescenta Valley High, placed seventh in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.

This year’s Games in Barcelona will be the first Olympics for Herazo, who placed 27th in the 10K walk in last year’s world championships.

“I’m especially excited about making the team since this is the first year they’ll have the (women’s) walk in the Olympics,” Herazo said. “It’s exciting being a pioneer and all.”

Change in plan: The National Scholastic Outdoor track and field championships will restructure its rules regarding the age of its competitors next year in an effort to attract as many top-flight athletes as possible.

Mike Byrnes, president of the National Scholastic Sports Foundation, said the age rule in use at this year’s meet was identical to the one used for The Athletics Congress Junior (age 19 and under) championships. It prohibits anyone who turns 19 before Jan. 1 from competing in TAC meet, and it prevented several of the nation’s top high school seniors from competing in the National Scholastic meet at Birmingham.

“We lost at least five really good kids to Golden West (Invitational) because of that rule,” Byrnes said. “We shot ourselves in the foot. We won’t do it again next year.”

Byrnes said Ibrahim Aden of Fork Union, Va., and Paulette Mitchell of Council Bluffs, Iowa, wanted to compete in the National Scholastic meet, but could not because they turned 19 before Jan. 1.

As a result, they competed in the Golden West meet, Byrnes said.

Aden won the boys’ mile in 4 minutes 5.71 seconds, the fastest high school time in the nation this year, and Mitchell won the girls’ shotput at 49 feet 4 1/2 inches at Golden West.

Byrnes said that next year the National Scholastic meet will operate under the age rules that govern high schools nationwide. Those rules deem prep athletes eligible to compete in high school sports if they turn 19 on Sept. 1 or later.

High stepping: Reseda High junior Drue Powell continues to amaze Regent Coach Steve Caminiti.

Powell, the third-place finisher in the 110-meter high hurdles in the state championships earlier this month, ran a personal best of 14.00 seconds to win the event in the young men’s division (age 16 and 17) in The Athletics Congress Junior Olympic championships at Cal State Long Beach on Sunday.

Powell’s performance was surprising because he took two weeks off after the state meet to allow a back injury to heal.

“The guy didn’t run a step between the state meet and last weekend,” Caminiti said. “Maybe I’ve discovered a new way to train hurdlers. Don’t make them work out.”

In remembrance: My thoughts go out to the family and friends of Eric Hulst, a former All-American distance runner at Laguna Beach High who died of brain cancer last Sunday at the age of 34.

Hulst, who ran 8 minutes 44.6 seconds in the two-mile as a senior in 1976, won consecutive state titles in the event in 1975 and ’76.

He was one of the top runners in the country during an era in which the top preps broke nine minutes in the two-mile on a regular basis. I still remember some of the classic duels he had with Thom Hunt (best of 8:45.2) of San Diego Henry, Ralph Serna (8:45.9) of Anaheim Loara, and Don Moses (8:52.6) of Crescenta Valley.

Theory behind the fall: Fred Koegler, the track coach at Verdugo Hills High, said the new year-round school calendar in effect at L. A. City Section high schools played a large part in the disappointing performances by the section’s athletes in the state track championships earlier this month.

Athletes from the section accounted for only 13 points in 31 events at the state meet--which was scored on a 10-8-6-4-2-1 basis--after averaging 69.75 points from 1986-’91. In addition, the City failed to produce at least one state champion for the first time since 1972.

Koegler, who has been involved in the track program at Verdugo Hills since 1972, said the two-month school break from Dec. 18-Feb. 18 was disastrous for City track because most athletes failed to work out during that period, and consequently, they were woefully out of shape when they returned to school.

The heavy rains in February compounded the situation as athletes could not work out on tracks that had turned into swamps.

In previous years, City schools had had a two-week break for Christmas, returning to classes shortly after the first of the year.

Although track athletes could not practice after school until the start of the second semester in early February, they were allowed to work out during sixth period, which was helpful in establishing a good fitness base before the start of the season.

“That was a good time to get a kid in good overall shape,” Koegler said. “Now, we can’t do that. Before we could begin to move on to other things when after-school practice started. Now, it’s like we’re starting from square one most of the time.”