TRACK AND FIELD / IRENE GARCIA : Dameworth Outruns His Pain

Bryan Dameworth knows all about pain. It’s been a constant part of his life for almost 10 years. Various ailments have taken a toll on his career as a runner.

But after four long and hard years at the University of Wisconsin, Dameworth is back home in Calabasas, training and feeling better than ever.

“Right now I have no pains, which is rare,” Dameworth said. “It’s really nice to be home. A lot of my spirit is right here.”

When Dameworth left for college he was a promising distance runner with world-class potential. At Agoura High he won three state cross-country titles, a state championship in the 3,200 meters and, as a senior in 1989, the national high school cross-country championship.

Dameworth was recruited by top college programs such as Arkansas, Oregon and Arizona. One wondered why an athlete with such a bright future seemed so downcast.

“Because I was in pain ,” Dameworth said. “I had stress fractures on both feet and I ended up spending eight weeks of my freshman season at Wisconsin on crutches. It was horrible.”

It got worse. As a sophomore, Dameworth had emergency abdominal surgery to correct twisted intestines. As a junior, he hurt his back. As a senior, he strained an Achilles’ tendon.

Between injuries, he managed to place second in the Big Ten Conference indoor meet in the 5,000 meters.

“By that time all the injuries were really wearing me down mentally,” Dameworth said. “Seems like every time I got in top shape and felt great, something would happen.”

Dameworth now is looking ahead. He earned a degree in recreation resource management and recently took one month off from running.

Feeling fresh and rejuvenated, he has regained a great deal of confidence.

“I took two weeks to drive back home from Wisconsin so I could just relax and see things. It did me a lot of good.”

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The only soreness Dameworth is feeling these days is the result of intense workouts. He’s training with his old high school coach, Billy Duley, at the FutureTrack club in Calabasas.

“I plan to run a full cross-country season, about eight or nine meets, and be ready for nationals in early December,” Dameworth said. “My goal is, of course, to stay healthy and qualify for the Olympic trials in the 5,000 and the steeplechase.”

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Crissy Mills is another former high school standout who fell on hard times in college. She won state high jump titles as a sophomore and junior at Campbell Hall, but a knee injury prevented her from competing as a senior. It also hampered her collegiate career at USC.

Mills suffered the injury while playing for the Campbell Hall volleyball team.

She didn’t compete as a college freshman and placed seventh at the NCAA meet as a sophomore in 1993, her best season and one in which she won five times.

Mills is on vacation in Montana until next month, but her father, Walter, says there is no truth to rumors his daughter is retiring as a jumper.

“She’s just taking a vacation and preparing for the next step,” Walter Mills said. “She’ll be back.”

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Quincy Watts and Percy Knox will compete in the Olympic Festival next week at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Watts, a 1988 graduate of Taft High, still holds the collegiate record in the 400 meters, a mark of 43.50 set during the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. That effort ranks second on the all-time U.S. list. Butch Reynolds set the record of 43.29 in August, 1988, in Zurich, Switzerland.

Knox, a 1987 graduate of Antelope Valley High, ranks among the nation’s top 34 long jumpers. His top mark of 26 feet 2 1/2 inches was set in 1993 in Tucson.

The Olympic Festival begins today, but track and field is not scheduled to start until July 29.