TRACK AND FIELD / JOHN ORTEGA : After Being Left Out in Cold, Haag Goes to Chile

Danny Haag of Northridge will get a chance to compete in the Pan American Junior (ages 14-19) championships after all.

The former Granada Hills High standout totaled a personal best of 7,148 points in the decathlon to finish third in the USA Track & Field Junior championships in June, but that appeared to have left him one place shy of earning a spot on the U.S. team that will compete in Santiago, Chile, Sept. 1-3.

“I was really disappointed when I found out that I didn’t make the team,” Haag said after finishing behind Tom Pappas (7,154) of Lane (Ore.) Community College and Aaron Fox (7,153) of Texas.

Fox recently withdrew from the meet due to school commitments, however, and Haag replaced him.

“I’m really happy about the way things turned out,” Haag said. “[The Pan American Junior championships] is the meet that I trained for all year. This is the meet that I had been pointing toward.”

Haag’s goal is to make the top 10 all-time U.S. junior list (7,264 points) in the meet and raise his stock among coaches at NCAA Division I schools.

The 1994 City Section champion in the 110-meter high hurdles fulfilled the academic requirements to attend a Division I school upon graduation from Granada Hills, but opted to compete at the club level this season while attending Pierce College in hopes of landing an athletic scholarship.

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Haag is one of three athletes with ties to the region who will compete in Chile, Jeremy Fischer of Wisconsin and Kadrina Coffee of Palmdale High being the others.

Fischer, the 1994 state champion for Camarillo High, will compete in the men’s high jump.

Coffee, who will begin her sophomore year at Palmdale next month, will run in the women’s 400 meters and on the United States’ 1,600 relay team.

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Antelope Valley College had one of the top 400 relay teams in the state last season and the Marauders could be formidable in the 1,600 relay as well next year, thanks to the addition of former Taft High sprinter Moses Backus.

Backus, runner-up in the 400 in this year’s City Section championships, has a best of 48.5 seconds.

Verick Dabney, a 49.7 performer for Las Vegas El Dorado High in 1994, and Monte Reed, a 50.1 runner for Quartz Hill High this year, will also join an Antelope Valley program that includes George Daniels.

Daniels clocked a best of 48.01 to finish third in the 400 in the State junior college championships in May and also ran the second leg on the 400 relay team that clocked a school record of 40.72 to place fourth.

“A lot can happen between now and next season, but right now we’ve got the makings of a very good 1,600 relay team,” Antelope Valley Coach Mark Covert said.

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As a former national-class distance runner, Covert is very appreciative of this summer’s world-record spree by Algeria’s Noureddine Morceli, Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie and Kenya’s Moses Kiptanui.

The three have combined for seven world records in distances ranging from 1,500 to 10,000 meters.

Gebrselassie, world record-holder in the 5,000 (12 minutes 44.39 seconds) and 10,000 (26:43.54), has the world best of 8:07.46 in the two-mile. Morceli’s world record of 7:25.11 in the 3,000 meters--approximately 1 7/8 miles--converts to a two-mile time of 8:00.72.

Talk of an eight-minute two-mile would have been considered ludicrous at the start of the decade, but Morceli, Gebrselassie and Kiptanui--who lowered the world record to 7:59.18 in the 3,000 steeplechase last week--appear capable of breaking that magical barrier.

“They just need someone to bring them through the mile in 3:58 or 3:59,” Covert said. “After that, those three guys can just hammer it out over the last four laps.”

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Gary Tuttle, Ventura’s deputy mayor, remains confident that an all-weather track will be installed at Ventura High in time for the 1996 track season, although construction will not begin until after the high school football season.

Tuttle hoped the track would be completed this summer with the volunteer construction help of the Port Hueneme SeaBees, but when the SeaBees withdrew their support because of other commitments, the project was put on hold.

“Obviously, I would like to have finished it this summer,” Tuttle said. “But that didn’t happen. Now I have a few months to plan how we’re going to proceed.”

The city of Ventura has committed $75,000 to the $300,000 project with the remaining funds expected to come from the Ventura School District and private donations.

Cleveland Brown defensive back Eric Turner, who played at Ventura High, has expressed interest about making a donation to the project, but Tuttle has not pursued the matter because Turner is attempting to renegotiate his contract.