TRACK & FIELD / JOHN ORTEGA : If He Wants to Press the Issue in the Javelin, Noel Needs to Relax

Garrett Noel of the Stars & Stripes Track Club will try to put the lesson he learned two weeks ago into practice at the USA Track & Field championships this weekend at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

Noel, a 1988 graduate of Crespi High, will throw in the qualifying round of the men’s javelin Friday, and, possibly, in the finals Saturday.

On June 4, Noel placed ninth in the NCAA championships in New Orleans and became Cal State Northridge’s first male athlete to win Division I All-American honors twice.

Noel’s throw of 227 feet 6 inches was nearly eight feet better than his eighth-place throw in last year’s championships, but it was far short of his pre-meet goal of 262 feet 5 inches.

“My approach felt great and I was throwing 240 on my warm-up throws with a five-step approach,” Noel said. “But I was too anxious to get in a big throw early.”

As have many before him, Noel figured if he could get off a big throw in the first couple of rounds, his competitors would wilt under the pressure.

The strategy worked perfectly, except it was UCLA senior Erik Smith who unloaded a Pacific 10 Conference-record throw of 259-10 in the second round and then sat back and watched the others struggle to catch up.

“I did exactly what I didn’t want to do,” Noel said. “(Erik) did what I wanted to do. He got off a good throw and then watched the rest of us press.”

Throwing a javelin might appear simple, but it is a highly technical endeavor that requires coordination of the angle of release and the speed with which the 800-gram (1.76 pounds) spear is propelled.

When javelin throwers press--as Noel did--they have a tendency to rush and wind up in the wrong position at the point of release.

“I was opening my body up too soon,” Noel said. “I was uncoiling too early.”

The result was a throw that was nearly 20 feet short of the Matador record of 247-0 he set in the Northridge Open on May 1.

“I’m happy for (Smith), but it just wasn’t my day,” Noel said. “I was disappointed but I wasn’t discouraged. I learned that you just have to relax and let it happen. If I don’t get a good throw early, I can’t get rattled.”

*

Add Noel: Noel’s collegiate career came to a close in the NCAA meet, but he remains in the developmental stages of a career that could last past the turn of the century.

“Right now, my goal is to try to make the 1996 Olympic team,” he said. “I have no intention of hanging it up for a long time.”

Noel, who graduated from Northridge last month and began a full-time job with an investment-banking firm last week, is the No. 5-ranked thrower in the nation this season entering the USATF championships.

Ranked ahead of Noel are Tom Pukstys (277-6) of the Mizuno track club, Smith, Stars & Stripes teammate Ed Kaminski (259-8) and Brian Keane (254-10) of Western Michigan.

*

Trivia question: Name the only league in the state from which two runners have qualified for the final of the boys’ 800 meters in Saturday’s state meet at Cerritos College?

*

Gaining ground: In only its third year of existence, the National Scholastic Outdoor track and field championships seems established as a meet that is on a par with the Golden West Invitational, which began in 1960.

The Golden West meet, run at American River College in Sacramento on Saturday, last year produced better winning marks than the National Scholastic meet in 21 of 26 comparable boys’ and girls’ events. This year, the tally was 16 of 30.

If a hypothetical dual meet--in which points are awarded to the top three finishers in each event on a 5-3-1 basis--was held using marks from each meet, the National Scholastic would defeat the Golden West, 69-66, in the boys’ competition, and the Golden West would win the girls’ meet, 79-56.

*

Double trouble: Andre DeSaussure of Taft High is accustomed to running in three or four events each meet, but a two-sport daily double left him near the back of the pack in the National Scholastic meet.

DeSaussure (6-foot-3, 180 pounds) caught three touchdown passes for the Toreadors in a passing league football game in the morning, then finished a dismal eighth in the 400 in the afternoon.

DeSaussure’s time of 50.66 was well off his personal best of 47.1.

*

Trivia answer: The Foothill League will be represented by Isaac Turner of Burbank and Paul De La Cerda of Hart in the boys’ 800 in the state championships.

Turner has a personal best of 1 minute 53.86 seconds and De La Cerda has timed 1:54.29.