U.S. Olympic Festival Roundup : Sprint Relay Teams Turn In Hot Marks on Torrid Day

DURHAM, N.C. â€”  The men’s and women’s 400-meter relay teams were as hot as the temperatures at the U.S. Olympic Festival Saturday.

Running in temperatures above 100 degrees at Wallace Wade Stadium on the Duke University campus, the men posted the fastest time in the world this year, and the women had the best time by an American team.

The South men’s foursome of James Butler, of Tallahassee, Fla., Lee McNeill of Greenville, N.C., Dennis Mitchell of Sicklerville, N.J., and Harvey McSwain of Shelby, N.C., was timed in 38.37 seconds, .01 under the previous 1987 world best by a team from the Soviet Union. The clocking also broke the stadium record of 38.56, set by the U.S. national team in 1982.

“Everybody was talking about the West. They didn’t really give us a chance,� Mitchell said. The West team had three former Olympians--Thomas Jefferson, Calvin Smith and Harvey Glance.

“They didn’t realize, all of us have run 10.1 (seconds) in the open 100 meters. All we had to do is get the baton around the track, which we did.�

Mitchell did it best, streaking from third place on the third leg and giving McSwain the lead.

In the women’s relay, national 100-meter champion Diane Williams keyed the West team that will represent the United States in next month’s World Championships. The team of Alice Brown of Los Angeles, Williams of Venice, Calif., Florence Griffith of Los Angeles and Pam Marshall of Glenwood, Calif., was timed in 42.22. That beat the 42.90 by the United States in the recent World University Games.

Triple Olympic gold medalist Valerie Brisco of Los Angeles won her second Festival gold in two nights, taking the women’s 400 meters in 50.00. She won the 200 Friday night.

Debbie Grant of Villanova turned in the fastest clocking of the year by a collegian in winning the women’s 800 in 2:00.47. Charlie Simpkins of Charleston, S.C., the 1986 national champion, took the triple jump, leaping 56 feet 2 inches on his final attempt, beating Olympic champion Al Joyner of Long Beach, Calif., by one inch.

Other men’s winners were 1985 World Cup champion Michael Franks of Carbondale, Ill., in the 400 in a stadium-record 45.11; Jim Cooper of Winston-Salem, N.C., in the 3,000 steeplechase in a stadium-record 8:29.00; Scott Davis of Eugene, Ore., in the pole vault at 18-1; Stanley Redwine of Fayetteville, Ark., in the 800 in 1:47.09; and Mike Barnett of Glendora, Calif., in the javelin at 260-1.

Other women’s winners were 1984 NCAA champion Sheila Tarr of Bakersfield, Calif., in the heptathlon with a career-best 5,855 points; Margaret Groos of Nashville, Tenn., in the 10,000 in 33:47.03; and Laura DeSnoo of San Diego in the discus at 188-5.

In gymnastics, David St. Pierre, of Los Angeles, won two gold medals, plus a silver and a bronze in the men’s individual events.

St. Pierre, 20, of Los Angeles and NCAA champion UCLA, won gold medals in the floor exercise and the horizontal bar, a silver in the parallel bars and a bronze in the pommel horse.

A boat from the Vesper Boat Club in Philadelphia was chosen from the rowing eights competition to represent the United States at the Pan American Games next month in Indianapolis.