TRACK & FIELD / JOHN ORTEGA : Beck Could Improve Over Time

Marty Beck jokingly refers to himself as “a quarter-miler who didn’t make the grade,” but the former Glendale College standout is regarded as one of the nation’s top young 400-meter intermediate hurdlers.

Beck, 24, finished fifth in last month’s USA Track & Field championships in Knoxville, Tenn., and will represent the United States in three international meets later this summer, including the USA-Africa meet at Duke University Aug. 12-13.

Although the field in the national championships was weaker than in previous seasons--due to the fact that there are no Olympic Games or World Championships to qualify for this year--Beck viewed it as an opportunity for some of the nation’s young hurdlers to grab the spotlight.

He was particularly pleased with his 49.53 clocking in a quarterfinal that lowered the personal best (49.59) he set as a UCLA senior in 1992.

“It was a very controlled, technically sound race,” Beck said. “I wasn’t running all-out so I was surprised with the time. I went into the race looking to run just fast enough to advance to the next round so I was really pumped up after that.”

Beck, who runs for Nike International L.A., hoped to lower his personal best in the final two days later, but timed 49.77 while running in Lane 7.

“I don’t like making excuses for myself, but the lane I was in didn’t help,” Beck said. “Most of the top competition was on the inside of me and that made it hard for me to tell exactly where they were during the race.”

Despite Beck’s disappointment at finishing out of the top three, his season is proceeding smoothly compared to last year, when he was eliminated in the semifinals of the USA Track & Field championships.

Beck attributes last year’s troubles to an insufficient number of races. As a senior at UCLA, he ran a total of 28 400-meter races--counting the 400, intermediate hurdles and legs on the 1,600 relay--but that figure dropped to seven in 1993 as it became harder for him to get into invitational meets because he was running at the more-competitive club level.

As a result, he never got into a racing groove.

“I was coming off a great year in 1992 and I expected things to continue in 1993, but they didn’t,” Beck said. “It was a tough transition from college.”

With last year’s experiences behind him, the 6-foot-3 1/2, 180-pound Beck is looking forward to breaking 49 seconds by season’s end.

“That is the goal,” he said. “(49 seconds) seems like a big barrier to me right now, but I think it’s more psychological than physical. As soon as I get that first 48, I’ll realize I can do it and probably start running under 49 all the time.”

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Trivia question: What local high school track coach placed third in the 120-yard high hurdles and the 180-yard lows in the 1964 State high school championships?

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Out of the spotlight: Drue Powell, the 1993 State champion in the 110-meter high hurdles for Reseda High, got his first taste of working in the movie industry last spring and enjoyed it so much that he has put his track career on hold.

Powell won the 110 highs for Glendale College in the Western State Conference championships in April.

Less than a week later, he and long jumper Mike Wright were suspended for the remainder of the season for violating team rules, however, and he hasn’t raced since.

“I intended to run during the summer track season, but I got really involved with films,” Powell said. “I’m really enjoying what I’m doing right now so I want to see where this will take me.”

Powell became involved in movies in February when he was hired as an extra in a Mario Van Peebles film about the Black Panthers.

During a break one day, Powell remarked that making movies seemed pretty easy to him.

An assistant director took exception to his statement, but instead of getting angry, asked Powell if he’d like to work as a production assistant.

Although Powell accepted the offer and discovered that things weren’t so simple, he became enthralled with working behind the scenes.

The filming of “Black Panthers” ended recently, but Powell hopes to gain employment in other films and wants to enroll at UCLA in the spring to begin work toward his film degree.

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Holding out: Danny Haag, who graduated from Granada Hills High last month, was among the region’s top performers in three events this season, but doesn’t expect to be a member of a college team next year.

Rather, he’ll compete for one of the clubs in the Los Angeles area and hopes to improve enough to earn a scholarship to an NCAA Division I school for the 1995-96 academic year.

Haag finished fourth in the long jump and seventh in the 110 high hurdles in the State championships last month, but the decathlon is his forte.

He totaled a personal best of 6,476 points in that event to win the young men’s division of the USA Track & Field Junior Olympic Region 15 championships last month and figures to be shooting for the meet record of 6,768 points when he competes in the national championships July 26-27 at the University of Florida.

Fresno State tendered Haag a partial scholarship for the upcoming school year, but he hopes to improve enough next season to warrant better offers.

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Bad call: Jeremy Fischer of Camarillo High, and not Mebrahtom Keflezighi of San Diego, should have been selected as the 1994 Gatorade Pacific Region and State boys’ track and field athlete of the year.

Keflezighi, who will run cross-country for UCLA in the fall, had a superb senior season, but Fischer’s was better.

Keflezighi won state titles in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters, and led the yearly national list in the mile and 3,200 with times of 4 minutes 5.58 seconds and 8:51.8.

However, his best time in the mile puts him in a tie for 27th on the all-time national high school performer list and his 3,200 best ranks 56th.

Fischer, who is headed to Wisconsin, won the state title in the high jump and was undefeated outdoors. His personal best of 7 feet 4 inches ties him for eighth on the all-time national list.

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Trivia answer: Reseda Coach Steve Caminiti ran 14.1 seconds in the 120 highs and 18.7 in the 180 lows for Crespi in the 1964 State meet.

Caminiti, who was nicknamed the “Crespi Comet,” is a co-holder of the region record in the high hurdles. His best of 13.7 in the 120-yard highs converts to a 13.6 clocking for 110 meters.

Shelton Boykin shares the region record with Caminiti.

Boykin won the 1987 City Section title for San Fernando with a fully-automatic time of 13.84, which converts to a hand time of 13.6.