CSUN Women Start Fast at CCAA Meet : Northridge Men, on the Other Hand, Fail to Score a Single Point

The Cal State Northridge men’s and women’s track teams had mixed fortunes on Friday, the second day of competition at the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. championships at Cal Poly Pomona.

The CSUN women’s team is performing better than Coach Don Strametz expected. However, the men’s team is performing below expectations.

After seven events, the Northridge women are leading the meet with 73 points, followed by Cal Poly Pomona with 62. Defending champion and pre-meet favorite Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is third with 54.

In the men’s meet, defending champion San Luis Obispo leads with 61 points, followed closely by Cal State Los Angeles with 59 points and Pomona with 43. Northridge has yet to score in the meet.

Lori Costello has been the leader for the Matador women thus far. Scheduled to compete in four individual events and two relays, the senior placed second in the long jump with a season best of 19-6 1/2.

She then ran a season best of 14.78 in the 100-meter low hurdles while finishing second in her heat. After a brief rest, she qualified for Saturday’s 200-meter dash final with a third place 25.57 effort.

While Costello was busy Friday, her schedule today promises to be even more hectic.

She is scheduled to compete in the finals of the 100 hurdles, the 200, the triple jump and both the 400- and 1600-meter relays. A two-time Division II All-American in 1985, she is the defending CCAA champion in the triple jump.

Junior Nancy Bowman turned in an outstanding performance in the 5,000 meters. She followed teammates Alex Aguirre and Nina Manriquez for most of the race before narrowly out-sprinting Aguirre for the victory. Her time of 16:58.3 was a personal best by better than thirty seconds and qualified her for the Division II championships. She already has qualified in the 3,000 meters.

Aguirre finished second in 16:58.4 and Manriquez third (17:01.0) to give the Matadors 24 points in the event.

In the 10,000, Northridge picked up another 22 points. Freshmen Heather Brooks (37:14.6) and Margaret Barlog (37:30.4) finished 1-2 for the Matadors.

While most of the Northridge women were performing well, they did suffer some setbacks. Defending CCAA champion Sue Patterson, still recovering from a four-week bout with mononucleosis, placed only fourth in the high jump. Her 5-8 3/4 effort was nearly four inches shy of her season best of 6-0 1/2

Because of her illness, Patterson also was unable to compete in the heptathlon, an event in which she placed second at last year’s meet.

Strametz was pleased with his team’s performance thus far.

“Overall, we’re performing well. We’ve just got to keep the pressure on tomorrow,” he said.

The Northridge men were dealt a severe blow when junior Gary Jackson aggravated a hamstring injury in warm-ups Friday. He had been favored to win the 100 and 200 meters and was a co-favorite in the long jump. The junior has qualified for the Division II nationals in all three events.

CSUN sprinter Keith Copeland won his heat of the 400 in a season best 48.11 and also qualified for the 200-meter final with a second-place finish in 21.70.

Today’s events begin at 4 p.m. with the men’s triple jump.