Built for Distance, Contreras Is Thriving for Anteaters in the Long Run

Bryan Contreras looks the part. Small, thin, wiry--he is built like a distance runner. There is nothing deceiving in his appearance.

“I couldn’t picture myself as a sprinter,” said Contreras, a senior at UC Irvine. “I don’t have enough muscles.” Or even some of the places to put muscles.

But over the long haul--say 10,000 meters--there are few stronger than Contreras.

He already has set personal bests in the 10,000 meters, 5,000 meters and the 3,000-meter steeplechase this season heading into Saturday’s Steve Scott Invitational at Long Beach State.

Contreras has lowered his times considerably from last season, including taking nearly 12 seconds off his time in the 3,000 steeplechase.

“This just didn’t happen overnight,” Irvine Coach Vince O’Boyle said. “You’re not going to step out there and run like he runs the first time. Maybe the superstar guys can, but not the average runner. It takes time.”

It has taken Contreras eight years.

He wasn’t a “superstar guy” at La Puente Bishop Amat High School. He wasn’t even an average guy at first.

Contreras was a baseball player--third baseman to be specific--growing up. Running was something he did one base at a time. A longer stretch was too difficult because he suffered from a mild case of asthma.

Baseball, though, became too political for him.

Contreras, then a freshman at Bishop Amat, was walking with a friend when a teacher stopped them. His friend already was trying out for the cross-country team and the teacher asked Contreras to come along as well.

“The last couple years, I was always on teams where the coaches had a favorite or their son playing third base,” Contreras said. “I got a little tired of that. I decided I could go to track and no one would hold me out because someone else was in the race.”

Again, he wasn’t an overnight success. In fact, he had trouble finishing races at first. But by the time he was a senior, he was the team’s top distance runner.

Contreras was Del Rey League champion in the mile and two-mile as a senior. He finished fourth in the mile at the Southern Section Division II meet.

He attended Mt. San Antonio College and placed fourth in the steeplechase at the state championships.

“My asthma was gone,” said Contreras, who outgrew the condition. “I used to hate running. Even playing hide-and-seek was hard on me. It wasn’t fun.”

Running is fun these days, even though it means putting in 60-80 miles per week.

Contreras finished fourth in the steeplechase and 13th in the 10,000 at the Big West Conference championships last season.

But he began to lose focus in the fall. His competitive edge seemed to wane as he had used up his eligibility in cross-country the prior season.

He had finished fifth in 1994 at the conference cross-country championships and 13th in 1995. Contreras ran unattached at a few meets last fall, but it wasn’t the same.

“None of my performances are worth talking about,” he said. “I wasn’t really into it at that point. After Christmas break, I got going again. I realized it was my last season at Irvine. I got the competitive desire back.”

That has shown.

Contreras’ times are among the best in the conference. He is second in the 10,000 (30:41.70), fourth in the steeplechase (9:13.94) and seventh in the 5,000 (14:45.66).

“I’m a distance runner,” Contreras said. “I couldn’t picture myself as anything else.”

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Run Pony Boy, run: Contreras was tagged with the nickname “Pony Boy,” a character in the book and movie “The Outsiders,” from almost the moment he came to Irvine.

“I had done the same job on my hair as the kid in the movie,” Contreras said. “I was lightening my hair color then. Everybody made the connection.”

The hair style has changed, the nickname remains, though it has been shortened to Pony.

“At first, I was asking, ‘Why do you guys have to call me that?’ ” Contreras said. “I got used to it. I don’t even mind it anymore.”

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A somewhat talented, somewhat slow center commits to an NCAA Division I school, then gets caught in a coaching switch. The new coach says he will honor the scholarship, but says the kid has little chance of playing for him.

The goings-on at UC Irvine last week? No.

In 1988, Los Alamitos High’s Andre Lamoureux, a 6-foot-9 center, orally committed to UCLA before Walt Hazzard was fired as coach. Jim Harrick offered to honor the scholarship, but Lamoureux decided to try elsewhere.

Those circumstances weren’t completely the same as what happened last week to Temple City’s Jeff Johannsen, a 6-11 center. Johannsen, who is a bit more mobile than Lamoureux, already had signed his letter of intent with Irvine.

But it’s not an unusual occurrence for new coaches to come in and make such choices. Pat Douglass, Irvine’s first-year coach, said he would honor Johannsen’s scholarship but was straightforward with him about his future as an Anteater.

It was the risk Johannsen took when he signed with then-coach Rod Baker last November. Everyone knew Baker was on paper-thin ice.

Still, it wasn’t a public relations high point for an Irvine program trying to recover from a 1-25 season.

Notes

Former USC Coach Fred Williams was interviewed for the vacant women’s job Monday. Traci Waites, the associate head coach at Irvine, as well as Anteater assistant Mark Adams, will be interviewed today. Chapman’s Mary Hegarty and Cal State Dominguez Hills’ Van Girard were interviewed last week.

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Coming Attractions

Here is a look at key upcoming games at UC Irvine.

* Men’s tennis hosts Loyola Marymount at 1:30 p.m. today and competes in the Big West Conference championships Thursday through Sunday at New Mexico State.

* Men’s golf competes in the Big West Conference championships Friday and Saturday at the Dayton Valley Country Club in Carson City (Nev.).

* The men’s and women’s track and field teams compete in the Steve Scott Invitational Saturday at Long Beach State beginning at 10 a.m.