Name Changes but Distance Meet Continues to Attract Talent

The name and site of the meet have changed, but the quality of competition is expected to remain high when the Twilight Distance Classic makes its debut at Birmingham High on Friday and Saturday nights.

The meet, called the Santa Monica Distance Classic, was held at Santa Monica College from 1986-92, but when school Athletic Director Avie Bridges expressed reservations about playing host any longer, meet director Skip Stolley decided to move it to another venue.

“We had been thinking doing that in the future anyway because the track (at Santa Monica) is starting to show a lot of wear,” Stolley said. “This just speeded up the process.”

Stolley narrowed the list of possible sites to Cal State Los Angeles, Veterans Stadium in Long Beach and Birmingham before choosing the Van Nuys site.

The meet is billed as “America’s largest track event for distance runners” and consists of men’s and women’s races ranging from 800 to 10,000 meters.

The invitational portion of the meet will be held Friday and the collegiate-open portion will take place Saturday. The first race each night is at 7:30.

The invitational men’s and women’s 1,500 were the highlights of last year’s meet.

Charles Marsala of the New York Athletic Club ran 3 minutes 37.46 seconds to lead a group of eight runners under 3:40 in the men’s race.

Regina Jacobs of the Mizuno Track Club won the women’s race in a meet record of 4:08.11. Ten runners broke 4:16.

Jacobs, a two-time Olympian and a 1981 graduate of the Argyll Academy (now Campbell Hall High), will be back to defend her title in the 1,500 against a field that includes nine runners who have been clocked under 4:18.

Ruth Wysocki and Darcy Arreola of Nike Coast Athletics are among those expected to challenge Jacobs. Wysocki is best known for defeating Mary Slaney in the 1984 Olympic trials, and Arreola won the 1991 NCAA title for Cal State Northridge.

Other top entries include Joaquim Cruz of Brazil in the men’s 800, Ernie Freer of the Bulldog Track Club in the men’s 1,500, and Fran ten Bensel of the University of Nebraska in the women’s 3,000.

Cruz has been slowed by injuries the last few years, but he won the 1984 Olympic title in the 800 and was the silver medalist in 1988.

Freer has a personal best of 3:39.5 in the 1,500 and ten Bensel placed seventh in both the 1,500 and 3,000 in last year’s Olympic trials.

Vaughan Kastor of Nike Track West and Deena Drossin of Arkansas are two former local standouts entered in the men’s 800 and the women’s 3,000, respectively.

Kastor set a Cal State Northridge record--it was later broken--of 1:49.21 in the 800 in 1988 and Drossin won a combined total of four state titles in cross-country and track for Agoura High before graduating in 1991.

Sasha Vujic, who set a Northridge record of 3:41.23 in winning the 1,500 in last year’s collegiate-open meet, will attempt to successfully defend his title Saturday night. Vujic will be running unattached.