On the Track, Campbell Never Slows Down

Freshman Brandon Campbell had been expected to provide a boost to the Cal State Fullerton track team this season.

Coach John Elders just didn’t realize how big an asset Campbell would turn out to be.

“Brandon does so many things well that it becomes difficult for us to decide which events he should focus on,” Elders said. “He’s an incredible athlete.”

Campbell set a school record with a time of 47.55 seconds in the 400 meters at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays. He also was a member of the 400- and 1600-meter relay teams that also set school records there. Earlier, he had set a school record in the long jump.

He ranks among the Big West Conference leaders in five other individual events this season.

Campbell has the conference’s best effort in the long jump this season at 23 feet, 8 3/4 inches. He is sixth in the high jump (6-8 3/4) and fifth in the triple jump (46-8). He also ranks seventh in the 400 meters, 10th in the 200 (21.76 seconds) and 14th in the 100 (10.97 seconds).

And all this not long after he finished his first season as a top reserve on the Titan basketball team.

Campbell was recruited by Fullerton out of Cardinal Ritter High in St. Louis on a basketball scholarship, but he was given assurances he could also compete in track. “Being able to run track was really important to me,” he said.

In his senior year at Cardinal Ritter, Campbell cleared 7-1 in the high jump and was the Missouri state champion in his division in the 100, 200 and 400 meters.

“He has great potential in several events, but the 400 meters might be his best,” Elders said. “We think he has a chance to get into the high 45s or the low 46s this season. He’s just learning to run the event, and he should be able to get better every year.”

The qualifying time for the nationals is 45.40 seconds.

Elders was especially impressed by the 46.5 leg Campbell ran at Mt. SAC on the 1600-meter relay team that also includes Kevin Howard, Greg Garus and Omar Anderson. Their time was 3:14.61. The 400-meter team, which ran 41.29 at Mt. SAC, is made up of Campbell, Anderson, Howard and Larry Leach.

“I feel like I’m still in my building stage,” Campbell said. “I think in another two weeks I’ll be in the kind of shape I want to be in. Hopefully by the Big West meet, I’ll be able to do even better than I have. It took a little while for me to adjust back to track after basketball.”

Elders said he is cautious about having Campbell compete in too many different events in the same meet.

“It’s tough on his body to do all those different things,” Elders said. “We don’t want to overextend him. In the Big West meet, it will be a tough decision on which events for him to enter. We’ll want to give him the opportunity to score as many points as he can, but not put him in the position of trying to do too much.”

Elders said he definitely plans to enter Campbell in the long jump, the 400 meters and both relays in the conference meet scheduled for May 19-22 at Fullerton.

“Then it becomes a question of whether he should try to do more than that,” Elders said.

Campbell said he had been eager to resume his track career in college.

“Last year in high school I had a bruised thigh muscle about halfway through the season,” he said. “I kept going anyway. I wanted this season to be better.”