TRACK AND FIELD / JOHN ORTEGA : Krill Still Gets Thrill, Will to Fulfill

Bryan Krill’s track career will continue for at least another year after a senior season at USC that included personal bests of 20.3 seconds in the 200 meters, 45.55 in the 400 and a fourth-place finish in that event in the Pacific 10 Conference championships.

The former Thousand Oaks High and Moorpark College standout failed to make it out of the heats in last month’s NCAA or USA track and field championships, but hanging up his spikes for good would have seemed premature after slashing 1 1/2 seconds off his best in the 400.

“I figured that with the year I had, I’d be cheating myself if I don’t give it a shot at least through 1996,” Krill said. “If I had run in the high 46s and in the low 21s, then I think I could have said, ‘It’s time to move on.’ But I took it to another level this year. In some ways, I feel like my career just began in the last three months.”

Improving his endurance base will be a key to Krill’s success next year as his competitive fuel tank ran low after May’s Pac 10 meet. He ran poorly in his 400 heat at the NCAA championships before anchoring the Trojans to fourth- and fifth-place times of 39.10 and 3:03.47 in the 400 and 1,600 relays.

“When Pac 10s were over, I really felt exhausted for like a week,” he said. “But that was to be expected. I’d been pointing toward the [meet against UCLA and Brigham Young] and the Pac 10s. Anything after that was gravy.”

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Double trouble: Ventura College should have a superb one-two punch in the men’s 400 intermediate hurdles next year as defending state junior college champion Kris McLucas will be joined by recent Buena High graduate Eric Stewart.

McLucas ran a solid 39.70 in the 300 intermediates as a Santa Clara High senior in 1994 before improving dramatically in the 400 intermediates. He entered the Western State Conference championships in April with a best of “56-something” before running 54.44 to win. He had lowered his best to 53.85 entering the State meet May 20, but few were prepared for his 52.38 victory because he was the eighth-seeded entrant in the nine-runner field.

Stewart’s high school credentials are superior to McLucas’--best of 38.53, second in the Southern Section Division II championships--but he too has much to learn about the intermediates.

His parents forbade him to compete in track as a junior because his grades weren’t up to their standards, so this season was his first at the varsity level.

“He’s going to improve a lot just with experience,” Buena Coach Ray Seay said. “I think Ventura got a real gem in him.”

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High-flying Tornado: Bridget Pearson, a recent graduate of Toll Junior High in Glendale, is expected to attend Hoover High in the fall.

Pearson might lack the notoriety that accompanied sprinter Marion Jones when the eventual nine-time state champion came out of Sherman Oaks Middle School to attend Rio Mesa High in 1989, but her pole-vaulting prowess should garner plenty of attention next year.

She has cleared 10 feet 10 inches in the fledgling girls’ event and finished fourth in last month’s USA Track & Field Junior (ages 14-19) championships at 10-8. That mark would have placed her third in this year’s State high school meet.

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Injury update: Kristin Dunn, who capped her Cal State Northridge career with a 10th-place finish in the USA Track & Field championships, underwent arthroscopic surgery Wednesday to remove a bone spur and scar tissue from her right knee.

Dunn, the Northridge record-holder at 176 feet 4 inches, injured her knee earlier this season but managed to finish sixth in the NCAA championships and 10th in the USATF meet. She also competed with a stress fracture and a bone chip in her left--throwing--elbow.

Removing the bone chip might require additional surgery.

“I know she doesn’t want to undergo any more surgery, but it’s also getting to the point where she’s tired of getting down about injuries,” Northridge assistant Candy Roberts said. “Because there’s only a three-week recovery period, I think she’s leaning toward having the chip removed.”

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Trend watch: It’s interesting to note that of the 11 athletes who have signed letters of intent with the Cal State Northridge men’s and women’s track programs this year, four are dual-sport athletes.

Bryant Eubanks and Steve Forte of Oceanside El Camino High and Ryan Jones of North Hollywood are slated to play football in the fall and run track in the spring, and Nancy James of Hart is set to compete in soccer and track.

Northridge had few dual-sport athletes on its track teams in recent years and Coach Don Strametz figures the new trend will prove beneficial to the Matador programs.

“It can only help us in recruiting,” he said. “I can name two or three quality female athletes who we’ve lost to other schools in the past couple of years because they wanted to play soccer and run track.”

Northridge will field a women’s soccer team for the first time this fall.