Not Everyone Is Off to Fast Start as Season Opens : Track and field: Mike Marsh, Steve Lewis shine at Mt. SAC Relays, but Leroy Burrell and Carl Lewis show signs of rust.

The Mt. San Antonio College Relays traditionally are considered the first significant outdoor track and field meet of the season, but there is invariably disagreement about what they signify other than a sunny, low-anxiety afternoon among the grass-covered hills and walnut groves.

The 37th annual edition Saturday was no exception. Those who competed well, such as Mike Marsh and Steve Lewis, said the meet served notice of a season brimming with promise, while those who did not, such as Leroy Burrell and Carl Lewis, said it is too early to draw conclusions.

But, for one afternoon at least, everyone would have to agree that Marsh, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist in the 200 meters, was impressive, although not as impressive as the scoreboard timer first indicated when it flashed 9.31 seconds for his 100 meters.

“I was quick, but not that quick,” said Marsh, whose winning time of 9.89 seconds was his best under all conditions. But as the prevailing wind was 2.81 meters per second, over the legal allowable of 2.00, it will be accompanied in the record books by an asterisk.

More enduring will be the fact that he beat his Santa Monica Track Club and Houston training partner, Burrell, who set the world record last year at 9.85, injured his foot a short time later and competed Saturday for the first time in eight months. He finished third in 10.09.

More threatening to Marsh was UCLA junior Ato Bolden, who held the lead for close to 70 meters before giving way to the former Bruin. Bolden, from Trinidad & Tobago, was second in 10.01.

If the 100 meters was the most exciting race, the 400 was the most inspirational. Steve Lewis, who won the gold medal in the event in the 1988 Olympics but has not run as well since because of an on-again, off-again struggle with Lyme’s disease, won in 45.06.

But the best comeback story in the race belonged to his longtime teammate, first with UCLA and now with Santa Monica, Danny Everett, running his first race since the semifinals in the 1992 Olympics. After missing the last two seasons with Achilles’ tendon injuries, he finished second in 45.91.

The rust was more apparent on Carl Lewis, long jumping for only the fourth time since he won his third Olympic gold medal in the event in 1992. He finished first among a weak field, but his winning distance, 26 feet 8 1/4 inches, was his shortest outdoors in 15 years. Second-place Percy Knox jumped 26-3 3/4.

The last time Lewis jumped at Mt. SAC, in 1987, he had an extraordinary series, with six jumps over 28 feet. With three jumps in the 26s, two in the 25s and a foul Saturday, it might have been his worst series since high school.

Asked if more formidable competition, such as world record-holder Mike Powell, might have helped him, Lewis said, “I might have been more focused, I don’t know.”

But Powell, who lives only a short distance from Mt. SAC, chose to start his season later after finishing 1994 with an injury. Meet director Dan Shrum said last week that an appearance fee might have persuaded Powell to rearrange his schedule, but Mt. SAC, unlike most invitational meets, pays only expenses. When Powell read that in the newspaper, he objected, saying that Shrum never invited him.

“I talked to his manager,” Shrum said Saturday. “Mike’s a good guy, and he’s helped us a lot in the past. I don’t want to say anything else about it, except that this was a missed opportunity.”

Another, due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control, was in the 400-meter relay, in which Santa Monica, including Carl Lewis, Burrell, Marsh and Sam Jefferson, agreed to give the World Class All-Stars, including Dennis Mitchell, Jon Drummond, John Regis and Tony Jarrett, a rematch after last year’s dramatic finish. But Jefferson’s father died last week, causing Santa Monica to withdraw.

World Class still entered, though minus an injured Mitchell, but did not get far as Jarrett and Regis fumbled the second exchange. A team with Maurice Greene, who beat Carl Lewis in the 100 last week at Austin, Tex., and promising young hurdler Allen Johnson won in 39.31.

Because of the chaotic nature of the meet, there are invariably a few gaffes. Public-address announcer Scott Davis spent much of Saturday advertising the women’s 3,200-meter relay, on the program as a tribute to 100 years of women’s track and field, only to learn at race time that it had been canceled because only one team entered.