TRACK AND FIELD : CSLA Hammer Thrower Hopes to Nail Down Title

Whether it’s academics or track and field, Mohammad Saat Ara has proven a quick study.

Saat Ara did not speak English or participate in track and field before he came to the United States from Iran at age 11.

Now a 22-year-old senior biology major at Cal State Los Angeles, Saat Ara has a 3.92 grade-point average and is the Iranian national record holder in the hammer throw at 181 feet 7 inches.

Saat Ara also holds the junior (age 19 and under) record for the event, in which competitors hurl a 16-pound steel ball connected to a cable while staying within a seven-foot diameter ring.

The event might also gain Saat Ara a place on the Iranian Olympic team in 1996. But for now, the 5-11, 250-pound Saat Ara has his sights on the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. title and a top eight finish in the NCAA Division II nationals in Emporia, Kansas May 24-27.

A shotputter and discus thrower at Azusa High, Saat Ara placed sixth in both events in the Southern Section Division II finals as a senior in 1990. That year he also began throwing the hammer, an event not contested in high school.

“I’m not really a big guy,” the 5-11, 250-pound Saat Ara said. “In the shotput and discus, physical size is an advantage. In the hammer, hard work and technique are the equalizer.”

As a sophomore at Citrus College in 1992, Saat Ara threw 166-2 to set the junior national record and placed seventh at the State junior college championship.

Saat Ara, however, was unaware he had broken the junior record or was closing in on Sadegh Mossavi’s 1983 Iranian national mark of 170-10 until Cal State L.A. Coach Don Babbitt discovered it while thumbing through a book with the national track records of more than 50 countries.

Saat Ara broke the record with a heave of 173-3 to place third at the 1993 California Collegiate Athletic Assn. meet in his first season at Cal State L.A. He increased the record to 181-7 in March after red-shirting the 1994 season.

Saat Ara is not the only national record-holder on the Cal State L.A. track team. Senior Ruben Benitez, who has dual citizenship with the U.S. and El Salvador, has bettered Salvadoran records in the 100, 200 and 400.

Cal State L.A.’s strength in the throws and sprints have made the Golden Eagles the favorite to repeat as CCAA champion.