Arreola’s Season Faded Fast at the Finish : Cross-country: CSUN runner struggled to 12th in NCAA Division I championships.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. —  Darcy Arreola discovered the difference between NCAA Division I and Division II this week.

When the Cal State Northridge senior won the NCAA Division II cross-country title last year, there was nobody strong enough to pass her when it came time for the finishing kick.

Running for the Division I title at Pine Lakes Golf Course on Monday, it was a different story. When it came time for the finishing kick, Arreola instead found that she was virtually finished.

Nine runners passed her in the final 450 yards of the 5,000-meter race, and Arreola finished 12th in 16 minutes 44 seconds.

“I could hear everybody passing me,” Arreola said, “and I thought, ‘Oh, gosh.’ There’s a lot more competition here. As soon as people start passing you, it’s hard to stay with it. You kind of give up.”

Tenth at the one-mile mark (4:57), Arreola moved into third place shortly after two miles, 60 yards behind eventual champion Sonia O’Sullivan (16:06) of Villanova and 40 yards behind runner-up Suzy Favor (16:18) of Wisconsin.

“I wanted to finish in the top 10,” she said. “I tried to just stay with the leaders and hold on. I knew if I was in the second group I would drop off even more. I was pretty tired.”

Arreola trimmed Favor’s advantage to 20 yards with 600 yards left, but she slowed when the course veered from the estimated crowd of 4,000.

“We had been running through this huge crowd for most of the race,” Arreola said. “It was really exciting. It was just like racing on the track, but when we turned away from it I kind of lost it mentally. I realized that I was out there alone again.”

Shortly thereafter, Susan Bliss of Missouri and Buffy Rabbitt of UC Irvine passed Arreola and several others followed suit.

“I just lost it mentally,” Arreola admitted. “I mean, there’s no way I could have slowed down that much physically in the last quarter-mile.”

Northridge Coach Don Strametz expressed mixed feelings about the race.

“She knows now that she belongs in that type of field,” Strametz said. “But it could have been the biggest breakthrough of her career if she just could have held on.”

Arreola became the first Northridge woman to earn Division I All-American cross-country honors since Julie Brown finished 12th in the 1978 Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women championships in Denver.

“I fell apart and everything,” Arreola said, “but it was still my best race (of the season), except for the very end. Then it may have been my worst.”

ALL-AMERICAN GIRL

Darcy Arreola has been honored as a collegiate All-American 11 times during her career at CS Northridge, including for Monday’s 12th-place finish in the NCAA Division I cross-country championships. CROSS-COUNTRY 1986: Placed 11th in the Division II championships in Riverside. 1987: Placed fifth in the Division II championships in Evansville, Ind. 1989: Won the Division II championships in Marshalls Creek, Pa. 1990: Placed 12th in the Division I championships in Knoxville, Tenn. TRACK AND FIELD 1987: Placed second in the 800 and 1,500 meters in the Division II championships in CapeGirardeau, Mo. 1988: Won the 1,500 and 3,000 in the Division II championships in San Angelo, Tex. 1989: Won the 3,000 and placed second in the 1,500 in the Division II championships in Hampton, Va.; Placed third in the 1,500 in the Division I championships in Provo, Utah NOTE--Arreola redshirted the 1988 cross-country season and the 1990 track season. To earn All-American honors in the NCAA championships, an athlete must place among the top 25 U.S. citizens in cross-country and finish among the top eight in a track and field event.