NUMBED BY NUMBERS

NORTHRIDGE — Numbers. Numbers. Numbers.

It’s easy to get obsessed with them when you’re a heptathlete and success is measured by points awarded in seven track and field events.

Yet Shelia Burrell of Reseda says she must learn to ignore numbers if she wants to become one of the world’s best.

Burrell, a 1995 graduate of UCLA and an assistant track coach at Cal State Northridge, won her first national title in the USA Track & Field championships in Eugene, Ore., last month, but her score of 6,101 points fell short of expectations.

“Her fitness and conditioning is such that she should score well over 6,500 points,” said Jeff McAuley, an assistant coach at Northridge. “But she does things technically wrong and shoots herself in the foot.”

The 100-meter high hurdles in the USA championships was a good example.

Burrell, 27, ran a clean race for the first seven hurdles in the first event of the heptathlon, but she slowed noticeably over the last three barriers after hitting them, finishing in 13.70.

“She tries to muscle things instead of relaxing,” McAuley said. “She has to let things happen instead of making them happen.”

Burrell, who will compete in the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, on July 27-28, and in the World championships in Seville, Spain, in August, understands.

“My problem is I try too hard,” she said. “I just get so intense that I’m not able to turn in my best performance because I’m too tight.”

An obsession with heptathlon scoring tables had a lot to do with her nerves until recently. Burrell, who had a career-best 6,294 points to finish second in the 1998 USA championships, would try to figure beforehand how many points she could score in each event with a particular performance.

But when problems arose in one event, she’d try to make up points in the next event, putting pressure on herself.

“There are things I know I’m capable of doing, but I’m not going to worry about points anymore,” Burrell said “I didn’t do that at [the national championships] and I’m not going to do that at [the Pan American Games] or in the World championships.”

Burrell’s attitude adjustment came after she finished fourth in a heptathlon in Gotzis, Austria, late in May.

Burrell totaled a season best of 6,261 points at Gotzis after producing marks of 13.46 in the 100 hurdles, 5-9 1/4 in the high jump, 43-5 in the shotput and 24.18 in the 200 on the first day, and 19-10 3/4 in the long jump, 156-1 in the javelin and 2:15.19 in the 800 on day two.

But she could have broken 6,300 points with a time of 2:12.42 or faster in the 800, something she has done in two heptathlons.

“She got lazy,” McAuley said. “She could have run 2:11 or 2:12 there, but she knew that wasn’t going to move her up in the standings, so she didn’t do it.”

Burrell, who ranks sixth on the world list this year, is favored to defeat U.S. teammate Tiffany Lott-Hogan for the Pan American title, but she’ll be an underdog in the World championships, where Denise Lewis of Great Britain, Ghada Shouaa of Syria and DeDee Nathan of the U.S. are expected to compete.

Lewis was the No. 1-ranked heptathlete in the world last year, Shouaa won the 1996 Olympic title, and Nathan won in Gotzis with a career-best and world-leading 6,577 points.

The World championships will be the third major international competition for Burrell.

The first was the Goodwill Games in Uniondale, N.Y., last summer.

Burrell finished seventh there with a disappointing 5,098 point total after failing to clear a height in the high jump, but she calls it one of her fondest athletic memories because she helped world-record holder and two-time Olympic champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee win the final heptathlon of her career.

“I was the happiest seventh-place finisher there,” Burrell said. “I got a chance to kick it with J.J. the whole time. . . . When she won, I felt like I won.”

Joyner-Kersee, whose husband and coach, Bob, trained Burrell at UCLA, had a 46-point lead over Nathan entering the 800, the final event. But Joyner-Kersee was unsure if she could hold off her younger rival.

Then Burrell gave her a pep talk.

“I told her to hang on to my butt,” Burrell told Track & Field News. “I said, ‘It’s an insult for you to be in this position anyway. You’ve been here more than any of us. You’re a champion, you gotta finish this.’ ”

McAuley says Burrell has the potential to be the world’s next great heptathlete, although he has tempered his opinion since last year, when he said she could be the next Olympic champion and the third woman to score 7,000 points.

“I think she’s still trying to figure out what her body can do,” McAuley said. “She’s just a raw bundle of talent who is still very hit-and-miss in competition.”

Burrell figures her consistency will improve as she gains experience in international competitions. But she still wonders when she’ll break the 6,500-point barrier.

“I am capable of doing that right now,” she said. “If I just relax and execute, I can score 6,500. Doing 6,500 is not like me going out there and doing something amazing. It’s just a case of me being consistent.”