COLLEGE DIVISION NOTEBOOK / MARTIN BECK : Wlodarczyk Getting Chapman Track, Cross-Country Up to Speed

For 14 years, Anna Wlodarczyk was a world-class long jumper for Poland. From 1979 to ‘84, she was among the best in the world in her event.

After her competitive career ended, Wlodarczyk coached and taught at a university in Warsaw. Before the 1992 Olympic Games, she was asked to help advise some Olympians who were training at Azusa Pacific University for the Barcelona Games.

But these days she is growing accustomed to a competitive level of another kind. She is trying to rebuild the Chapman University women’s track and field and cross-country programs. The programs were eliminated in 1989 in a cost-cutting move. They were reinstated when the university announced its intentions to switch from NCAA Division II to non-scholarship Division III.

Chapman hired Wlodarczyk, who was then the part-time men’s and women’s track and cross-country coach at Pasadena City College, last summer to jump-start the programs.

Wlodarczyk wasn’t able to do much recruiting off campus because of her late start, so she has had to depend on athletes already on campus.

Eight women joined her cross-country team. Only one had ever run competitively.

“I had basketball players, a racquetball player and just a few girls who wanted to get into good shape,” Wlodarczyk said. “But I can say that we showed we have a new program at Chapman and we had a lot of fun.”

That attitude has carried over to the 10-member women’s track-and-field team. The Panthers, who finish their season Saturday at the Cal Poly Pomona invitational, are not the most polished team around, but they work hard.

And there have been competitive marks.

Jolee Lautaret, who plays for the basketball team, broke the school high-jump record with a jump of 4 feet 9 3/4 this season.

The 400-meter relay team of Lautaret, Sig Lo, Rika Cullen and Carmela Jenkins came within .2 seconds of the school record last month. Wlodarczyk expects the team to challenge that record Saturday.

Wlodarczyk has been impressed with the work ethic of many of her athletes. Tanya Oliver, a junior from Long Beach City College, competes in the shot put, javelin and discus. To Wlodarczyk’s surprise, she joined the cross-country team.

“I’ve never seen a thrower run cross-country,” Wlodarczyk said.

Although competitive success has been rare, Wlodarczyk said it has been a productive year if only to get out the word that Chapman has a program again.

“I hope next year will be better,” Wlodarczyk said. “I’m hopeful that we’ll have at least a few athletes who have run track before.”

*

Very near miss: Wlodarczyk nearly won a medal at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow in a women’s long-jump competition that is considered the best in Olympic history. She jumped 22-9 3/4 on her final jump, moving into second place, seemly locking up the silver medal.

But two minutes later Wlodarczyk was in fourth after the Soviet Union’s Tatiana Kolpakova and East Germany’s Brigitte Wujak each shattered personal bests--23-2 and 23-1 1/4--to finish first and second.

Wlodarczyk, who finished third at the 1981 World Cup in Rome, never got another chance in the Olympics. Poland joined the Eastern-Bloc boycott of the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

“It was painful that I couldn’t compete in Los Angeles because I was in great shape,” Wlodarczyk said.

*

Southern California College softball pitcher Beth Howard was named the NAIA District 3 player of the year after helping the Vanguards to their second consecutive Golden State Athletic Conference title. Howard, a senior from Cypress High, finished the regular season with a district-leading earned-run average of 0.61. She was 22-3 with 129 strikeouts and 14 walks in 160 1/3 innings.

Howard will lead the Vanguards, ranked fifth in the nation in the latest NAIA poll, in the District 3 playoffs today and Saturday at SCC.

Azusa Pacific (18-21) and Cal Baptist (33-8-1) play in the first round of the double-elimination tournament at 11 a.m. today. The Vanguards (41-8) play the winner at 1 p.m. The losers of each game play again at 3 p.m. The championship is at 1 p.m. Saturday with a second game after if necessary.

Co-Coaches Terry Zeigler and Bekki Turner were named the coaches of the year for the second season in a row.

Other Vanguards on the all-district first team are: Shannon Saylor, a junior pitcher from Diamond Bar; Amy Lewis, a junior catcher from Villa Park High and Rancho Santiago College; Jen Caruso, a sophomore second baseman from Liberty Christian; Shannon Moreno, a junior third baseman from Carpinteria; Carrie Nelson, a junior outfielder from Colorado, and Angie Vega, a sophomore outfielder from Savanna High.

Concordia pitcher Stephanie Viola, a senior from Westminster High and Golden West College, was a second-team selection.

*

Knocked out: With two games remaining in the Golden State Athletic Conference baseball race, both county teams have apparently been eliminated from the NAIA District 3 playoff race.

Southern California College (18-29, 8-10 in conference) will complete the season by playing host to a doubleheader against Point Loma Nazarene (28-15, 10-8) Saturday. With a sweep, the Vanguards would move into a tie for third place, but Coach Charlie Phillips said they would still be eliminated by the district’s complicated tiebreaker system.

The top three conference teams get playoff spots. The fourth spot will go either to Biola, the top independent team, or the GSAC’s fourth-place team. Phillips said Biola’s victory 6-3 over Point Loma Nazarene Tuesday probably gives Biola the advantage in a tiebreaker with SCC.

“I think right now we are the hottest team and we’re not going to get in,” said Phillips, whose team lost its first seven conference games.

Concordia (17-27-1, 6-12), which will finish the season today at Westmont, has a chance at a tie for fourth but will also fall short in the tiebreaker, Coach Jackie Schniepp said.