Nelson on Wild-Goose Chase Again : Junior college track: Despite another official’s error, Glendale runner is second in steeplechase.

Robert Nelson of Glendale College must be wondering what it would be like to run a normal race in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in the Southern California track and field championships.

In last year’s meet, officials miscounted the laps and the competitors ended up running an extra 400 meters.

In Saturday’s meet at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach, the traditional ringing of the bell lap--signifying 400 meters to go--was mistakenly given to the runners with 600 meters left.

That resulted in Nelson launching into his finishing kick with 500 meters to go instead of 300, slowing down noticeably with 250 meters left in the race when he realized the mistake, then somehow picking up the pace again in the final 150 meters to finish second in 9 minutes 3.9 seconds.

“I just assumed that they knew what they were doing,” Nelson said. “But then I saw an official yelling at us that we had another (200 meters) to go. I just thought, ‘Oh great.’ That totally threw me off.”

Nelson, who surged from fourth to second during the mistaken last lap, was worried about losing his spot in the final 200, but when Muchapiwa Mazano of Riverside did a belly flop into the final water jump, Nelson’s runner-up finish was secure. Nelson, who faded from third to fourth during the extra lap of last year’s race, doubled back in the 5,000, but finished a distant ninth in 15:34.2.

The top six finishers in the field events and in races measuring 1,500 meters or longer, and the top four finishers in races of 800 meters or less and the relays, advanced to this week’s state championships at Shasta College in Redding.

Long Beach City College won the men’s title for the eighth consecutive year with a total of 193 1/2 points, followed by defending state champion Riverside (161), Mt. San Antonio (51), Bakersfield (42) and Moorpark (41 1/2). Valley was seventh with 29 points.

Riverside won the women’s meet with 139 points. Long Beach (106 1/2), San Diego Mesa (88), Mt. SAC (87) and El Camino (53 1/2) rounded out the top five.

Ken Teasley and Bryan Krill led the Moorpark men.

Teasley was second in the javelin with a toss of 195 feet 4 inches. Krill placed fifth in the 400 (47.64), and ran legs on the Raiders’ 400- and 1,600-meter relay teams which finished fourth in 41.32 and third in 3:14.62, respectively.

Teasley, who has a season best of 206-0, was tied for fourth (182-11) in the javelin before moving into second on his final throw of the competition.

Kyle Beck of Valley fell short in his quest to qualify for the state meet in five events, but still turned in a quality set of performances. He was third in the 400 intermediate hurdles (52.41), fourth in the 110 highs (14.75), and ran legs on Valley 400 and 1,600 relay teams which placed third (40.90) and fourth (3:15.16).

Beck began the meet with a disappointing 12th-place finish in the long jump (22-3 1/2).

Donyhel Johnson of Ventura was third in the men’s long jump with a wind-aided leap of 24 feet 6 1/4 inches and Kevin Maxie of Valley placed third in the 200 in 21.28.

Jennifer Stewart of Valley had an up-and-down performance in the women’s meet, placing second in the high jump at 5-6, but finishing 11th in the javelin at 106-0.