SUBTRACTION BY ADDITION

Running a good 800 meters in the first half of the track season will lead to running great 400s at the end.

That’s the philosophy of Mentu Daniel entering the Northridge-Alemany Relays today at Cal State Northridge.

Daniel, a senior at Antelope Valley High, is the second-fastest returning 400 sprinter in the state behind senior Blaine Bussey of Taft. But he won’t give his full attention to the 400 until the Pasadena Games at Occidental College on Mar. 27.

Daniel will run the 800 and legs on Antelope Valley’s 400, 800 and 1,600 relays in today’s meet that starts at 9 a.m.

“I just want to run under two minutes,” Daniel said of his goal in the 800 today. “I don’t care where I place.”

Like most quarter-milers, Daniel dislikes the 800.

But he’s willing to run the event because he knows it will make him stronger in the 400.

“I learned my lesson last year,” he said. “I was always breaking down with about 50 meters to go in the 400.”

Daniel, who clocked a career best of 47.24 to place fourth in the USA Track & Field Junior Olympics in Seattle last summer, is patterning his workout and race schedule after Obea Moore.

Moore ran 45.14 in the 400 and 1:49.16 in the 800 as a Pasadena Muir sophomore in 1995.

Running the 800 was a staple of Moore’s early season training. Mirroring Moore’s routine, Daniel trains twice a week with James Robertson, coach of the vaunted L.A. Jets youth club.

“Coach James had Obea run a lot of 800s,” Daniel said. “Because he knew they would help him in the 400.”

Although Daniel is a proven 400 sprinter, he is less renowned in high school track circles than Bussey or defending state champion Mike Ryan of Beverly Hills because he didn’t run in the state championships last year.

Daniel, academically ineligible as a sophomore, clocked a then-career best of 48.36 in the Golden League finals last May, but he couldn’t run in the Southern Section Division I preliminaries the following week because he was suspended from school.

“I messed up,” he said. “I’m not going to get involved in any more problems again. I’ve got to stay focused if I want to accomplish everything I want to this year.”

Daniel has never defeated Bussey, who was third in the state championships last year, and he won’t get a chance to end that streak until at least late April because Bussey is academically ineligible.

Bussey and Ryan, who is also academically ineligible, have bests of 47.20 and 47.38, respectively. They can regain their eligibility by raising their grade-point averages to 2.0 when mid-semester grades are issued. But Daniel is more concerned about the two-lap beast known as the 800.

“I want to go 46 [seconds in the 400] and I want to win state this year,” Daniel said. “And the only way to do that is to run these 800s.”

Daniel, sophomore Sierra Hauser-Price of Notre Dame and junior Deneeka Torrey of Taft could each compete in up to four events today.

Hauser-Price, sixth in the 200 and eighth in the 100 in the state championships last year, will run in those events and in the 400 and 1,600 relays.

Torrey, third in the 100 and 300 low hurdles in the 1998 City Section championships, will compete in the 100 highs, 300 lows and possibly in two relays.

Long Beach Poly, two-time defending state boys’ champion and defending girls’ co-champion, has athletes in the meet, but most of the Jackrabbits’ top performers are competing in the National Scholastic Indoor Championships at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Roxbury, Mass.