TRACK AND FIELD / JOHN ORTEGA : As Season Raced Along, Palmdale’s Arce Ran Faster and Faster

Antonio Arce’s streak of personal bests came to a close in the Golden West Invitational, but that did little to tarnish a superb season for the Palmdale High junior.

Although he finished a disappointing seventh in the 3,200 meters in the Golden West meet in Sacramento on Saturday, few athletes peaked as perfectly for the state championships as Arce, and none of the state’s top runners slashed more time off their personal bests over the last month of the season.

Arce entered the Southern Section Division I championships on May 21 with a personal best of 9 minutes 25.68 seconds in the 3,200 meters, but ran 9:13.30 to win.

He followed that with a second-place time of 9:09.21 in the Southern Section Masters Meet and placed second in the state championships in 9:03.19.

His hot streak came to a screeching halt, however, when he ran 9:27.59 in the Golden West meet.

Heat--it was 95 degrees in Sacramento--hampered everyone’s performance, but Arce did not use that as an excuse. As he put it, “I peaked at state and that was it. There was nothing else left in me.”

Arce, a native of Mexico City, attributes his fast finish to two factors that made him intensify his training regimen earlier this year.

First, he felt insulted when he was overlooked for the more prestigious night portion of the Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High in April. He had yet to run under 9:40 in the 3,200.

Second, although he won the daytime portion of the meet in a then-personal best of 9:25.68, 15 runners posted faster times in the night portion.

“I wasn’t real panicky, but I was a little concerned about where I was at,” Arce admitted. “There were several guys in (the night meet) who ran times that were way out of my reach at the time.”

Arce intensified his training sessions and began to reap the rewards when he ran a “comfortable” 9:26.08 in his heat of the Southern Section Division I preliminaries in May. His string of personal bests followed.

“At the beginning of the season, I just wanted to make it to state,” Arce said. “But after the Southern Section championships, I wanted to finish in the top 10. . . . After (the Masters Meet) I was shooting for the top five.”

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Trivia question: What local junior college coach placed third in the boys’ 440-yard dash in the 1962 state high school championships?

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High flyer: When Jeremy Fischer of Camarillo High cleared 7 feet 2 inches to win the high jump in the Golden West Invitational, it was the 20th meet of his career in which he has jumped 7 feet or higher.

The Wisconsin-bound Fischer cleared 7 feet or higher in 11 meets as a junior and nine this season.

Fischer has cleared 7-2 or higher in six meets this year, the most since 1984, when Dothel Edwards of Cedar Shoals, Ga., cleared 7-2 or higher 10 times.

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Add high jump: Fischer’s victory in the Golden West Invitational made him the fourth high jumper from the region to accomplish that feat since the meet’s inception in 1960.

The others are Randy Walker of Cleveland, who cleared 6-4 1/2 in 1961, Dwight Stones of Glendale (6-8 in ‘71) and Jeff Nadeau of Monroe (6-10 in ‘93).

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Faulty seeding: Jason Medearis of Hart ranked third on the yearly national high school list in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles before the Golden West Invitational, but organizers erred when he was assigned lane two.

Medearis had run a personal best of 36.80 seconds to place second in the Masters Meet on May 27. However, Golden West officials listed his best as 37.42--his time in the Arcadia Invitational--which meant he was seeded sixth in the nine-runner field instead of second.

Running in the inner lanes of the track is considered a disadvantage for sprinters and hurdlers because of the tighter turns. Hart Coach Larry David said that contributed to Medearis’ sixth-place finish in 38.0.

“He didn’t make up ground in the final straightaway like he usually does,” David said. “I think he saw all those guys ahead of him coming off the turn and felt a little discouraged.”

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Graduation trip: The Golden West Invitational was the final competition of Dolores Tuimoloau’s high school career.

Tuimoloau--who won the shotput with a mark of 47-1 1/4--and two of her cousins will leave on a three-week Hawaiian vacation today. Tuimoloau will skip the USA Track & Field Junior championships at Florida State on June 23-25.

Tuimoloau boosted the region record to 49-2 in the shotput this year and became Channel Islands’ first state champion. She moved to fourth on the all-time region list in the discus with a Ventura County record of 145-0.

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Looking forward: A lot can happen between now and September, but the Thousand Oaks High boys’ cross-country team might be stronger this fall than in 1993. Last fall, the Lancers were undefeated, ranked third in the nation and romped to victories in the State and Southern Division I championships.

Brandon Del Campo and Chadd Aldrich, who finished fourth and 14th in the state championships, graduated Thursday, but Jeff Fischer (third), Kevin Marsden (fifth), Keith O’Doherty (18th), Todd Disney (30th) and Josh Carolan (58th) are expected to return.

All had track seasons in which they lowered their personal bests by substantial margins.

Fischer ran 4:16.69 in the 1,600 and 9:10.42 in the 3,200, 16 and 20 seconds seconds faster than his bests in those events at the start of the season.

Marsden timed 1:57.15 in the 800 and 4:17.67 in the 1,600. His pre-1994 bests were 1:59.68 and 4:22.53.

O’Doherty ran 9:30.25 in the 3,200 with Disney at 9:37.42 and Carolan at 10:10.37.

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Trivia answer: Tom McMurray, the men’s coach at Glendale College, ran 48.3 seconds as a senior at Verdugo Hills High to finish third behind Manuel Diaz (48.1) of Keppel and Joe Johnson (48.2) of Oakland McClymonds in the 1962 state meet.

Tommie Smith, a promising junior from Lemoore, finished fourth in 48.4.

Smith, track coach at Santa Monica College, ran a then world record of 19.83 in the 200 meters at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.