STATE TRACK : Skieresz in It for Long Run

After finishing third in the 1992 Kinney national cross-country championships as a sophomore and winning the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs in the 1993 Southern Section Division I track and field championships, Amy Skieresz of Agoura High appeared to have the distance-running world at her feet.

Skieresz’s path has been filled with detours in the intervening two years, but she’s running faster than ever as the State track championships begin today at Cerritos College.

Skieresz enters the meet with the second-fastest time in the nation in the girls’ 3,200, yet as recently as two months ago, more than one track expert figured her best times were behind her.

Her descent began in May, 1993, when mononucleosis ended her season before the Southern Section Masters meet.

She recovered well enough to win the 1993 State Division I cross-country title, but her times over various courses paled in comparison to the previous year.

She stunned many people, including Agoura Coach Bill Duley, when she decided not to run in the 1993 Foot Locker West regional, and the surprises continued when her parents forbade her to run track last year because her grades did not measure up to their standards.

Although she came back to win the State Division II cross-country title in November, she placed a disappointing--for her--14th in the national championships in December.

All of the above had more than one observer asking whether the Arizona-bound Skieresz had flamed out at the grand old age of 16.

Her performances over the last two months seem to say, absolutely, positively not.

First, Skieresz ran 10 minutes 31.60 seconds to win the 3,200 in the Arcadia Invitational in April and lower her previous best of 10:45, set as a sixth-grader in 1989.

Two weeks ago, she turned in the fastest double of her career to place second to Anaheim Esperanza’s Courtney Pugmire in the 1,600 (school-record 4:52.70) and 3,200 (10:41.41) in the Southern Section Division I championships.

The clincher came during the Masters meet at Cerritos last Saturday when Skieresz ran a school-record 10:16.42 in the 3,200 to place second to Pugmire, who clocked a nation-leading 10:14.48.

The times moved Pugmire and Skieresz to sixth and 11th on the all-time state list and that dynamic duo will be joined by defending state champion and Santa Rosa sophomore Julia Stamps (10:16.69) in the 3,200 on Saturday in a race that will pit the nation’s top three-ranked runners against one another.

“[Amy is] definitely looking forward to the situation,” Duley said. “We’re hoping that it’ll be a race where she can draft off somebody instead of others drafting off her.”

Stamps’ decision to run only the 3,200 should guarantee that. The national cross-country champion likes to push the pace and that could help Skieresz break away from Pugmire at some point.

In their last three races, Pugmire has clung to Skieresz’s shoulder before surging past her in the final straightaway. But Pugmire will have run a qualifying heat of the 1,600 today and the final Saturday prior to the 3,200.

No matter what happens, Duley figures Skieresz has exorcised the ghosts of her running past.

“It’s nice to see her run well,” Duley said. “But it’s more satisfying to see her mature as an athlete. Despite how very talented she is, she didn’t have a whole lot of confidence in herself in the past. She does now and it’s helped her reach her potential.”

Today’s qualifying rounds start with the boys’ pole vault at 1 p.m. The first running events are at 5.