Long Distances Don’t Bother This Anteater’s Run to Success

When Kareen Nilsson steps to the starting line Sunday, the second day of the California/Nevada Track and Field Championships at UC Irvine, she will be the heavy favorite. It has been that way all season for the Anteater distance runner.

Nilsson, a junior, is undefeated in three starts in the 3,000- and 5,000-meter events this year.

And while she finished 13th in the 10,000-meter run at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational last weekend, her time of 33 minutes 48.59 seconds was the second best in school history and the eighth-best collegiate time in the country this season.

That performance, which included a personal-best 5,000-meter split time of 16:35, qualified Nilsson for the NCAA finals next month. UC Irvine Coach Vince O’Boyle says she can go even faster--perhaps as much as 10 seconds faster--before the end of the season.

Nilsson’s best time this season at 5,000 meters, which she considers her best race, is 16:45.04. That meets the provisional qualifying mark for the NCAA finals, but she would like to get under 16:30 and earn an automatic berth.

Nilsson has always been a top finisher in the classroom, too. Recently named a third-team academic All-American by the College Sports Information Directors of America, she is working to complete majors in English and drama.

But athletically, by all accounts, she is a late bloomer.

Her father, Roy, is the cross-country and track coach at Montebello High. But Kareen disliked running initially, to the point of objecting to the mile run at her Chino Hills middle school.

Then, out of the blue, when she was 13 . . . “We were having a 5K race in my town and I woke up early that morning and asked my dad to take me to it,” she said.

Nilsson’s time was the best in her age group.

She went on to compete in cross-country and track at Chino Hills Ayala High.

At Irvine, Nilsson ran cross-country her first two seasons and redshirted one season in track. O’Boyle thought her effort was good but could have been better. She failed to qualify for postseason competition until 1999, when, as a junior, she finished seventh in the Big West cross-country finals and 38th at the NCAA West Regional.

It was during a trip to Duke, where she would be a spectator at last year’s NCAA finals, that Nilsson realized what she was missing.

“I was sitting there [in the stands] and I listened to people who were watching the meet,” she said. “There were people there from Stanford, all of them were competing in the meet and I was not in the meet, but wishing I could be. I said to myself that I’d be there next year.”

Nilsson returned to Irvine last fall with new determination. She quickly grabbed the No. 1 spot on the cross-country team and won the Big West individual title last spring. She placed 11th at the NCAA West Regional and 103rd in a field of 253 runners at the NCAA finals in Ames, Iowa.

Nilsson is happy with her new-found success and now says she is glad she waited to get into running.

“So many in age-group track get burned out by the time they are in high school,” she said. “For me, it’s been a slow process. I wasn’t that good in the beginning, but I’d rather be better at this point in my career, where things are a little more prestigious.”

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Several other Anteaters have a chance to shine this weekend.

Among them are sophomore Tynisia Edwards, formerly of Foothill High, whose 40-foot 4-inch leap in the triple jump at Mt. SAC is the second-best mark in Irvine history.

Anteater junior Joseph Rodan has the second-best time (14.51) in the West region in the 110-meter high hurdles. The region’s leader in the event is UCLA’s Chucky Ryan (14.18), who is also entered.

UCLA’s Scott Moser (62-4 1/2), a former Huntington Beach High standout, is the favorite to win the shotput.

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Track and Field

* What: California/Nevada Track and Field Championships

* When: Today, field events begin at 8 a.m., running events at 11 a.m. Sunday, field events begin at 9 a.m., running events at 1 p.m.

* Where: UC Irvine

* Participants: Nearly 800 competitors from more than 30 colleges and universities in the two states are expected. Athletes must have achieved a qualifying mark earlier in the season to be eligible.

* Defending champions: Fresno State (men’s); UCLA (women’s).

* Tickets: $10 for a two-day pass or $6 for a single-day pass. UCI students with identification will be admitted free. Walk-up tickets are available at the stadium gate.

* Parking: $4 in Mesa parking garage adjacent to the Bren Center.

* Information: (949) 824-5000.