Arana Finds No Practice Is Perfect

For most track and field athletes, a meet is time to test skills in competition.

For Erica Arana of Moorpark College, competing in a meet is practice.

Arana, a 1995 graduate of Fillmore High, seldom has time to work out during the week because she works full-time in addition to attending school, but that hasn’t prevented her from being a valuable member of Moorpark’s team this season.

Arana helped the Raiders win the Western State Conference title last month and finish fifth in the Southern California championships last week.

On Friday, she placed seventh in the javelin and was in third place in the heptathlon after the first day of the state junior college championships at Citrus College.

“I felt strong,” Arana said about the heptathlon. “The second day is going to be my big day because it includes the long jump and the javelin. Those are my two best events.”

Arana had totaled 3,599 points to finish third in the Southern California heptathlon championships in April, but she was on pace to smash that score Friday as her first-day score of 2,484 was 384 better than what she totaled last month.

“I think it’s mental more than anything,” Arana said when asked about the improvement.

“I’ve just had more meets to compete in since then. I don’t practice much so I use the meets as practice.”

Arana posted heptathlon career bests in three of the four events by clocking 15.84 seconds in the 100-meter high hurdles, clearing 5 feet 1/2 inch in the high jump and running 26.88 in the 200. She posted a disappointing 24-4 1/4 in the shotput after trying a new technique.

“I was hoping to do better in the shotput,” she said. ‘But I just have to put that behind me. I can’t worry about it.”

Two hours after finishing the first day of the heptathlon, Arana placed seventh in the javelin with a throw of 118 feet. The mark was short of the 121-11 career best that she’d thrown to place third in the Southern California championships, but it helped Moorpark move into fifth place in the team standings with 10 points after the first day of the two-day meet.

Amanda Grubb gave the Raiders eight points when she finished a surprising second to Jill Wool of Modesto in the hammer throw.

Wool set a national junior college record of 178-9 and Grubb threw a school record of 144-7.

Grubb, who was a 34-foot shotputter for Camarillo High last year, threw 132-10 to finish an inch behind first-place Beth Foster of Ventura in the Southern California championships, but she topped that mark on five of her six throws Friday.

“We had been waiting for this,” Moorpark assistant John Keever said. “She threw 144 [feet] last night in practice, and I said, ‘That’s it. Let’s go.’ ”

Foster was sixth at 135-1 on Friday and teammate Anicia Rimm placed fourth in the long jump with a wind-aided 18-7.

Rimm, who is favored to win the 100 today, placed third in the long jump last year.

In the men’s meet, Andre Velasquez of Antelope Valley finished seventh in the long jump with a personal best of 24-1 1/2 and J.J. Noble of Moorpark was in fifth place in the decathlon with a first-day total of 3,285 points.