CSUN Women Are Second in Meet

Behind the showing of Lori Costello, the Cal State Northridge women’s track team turned in a strong performance Saturday to give CSUN second place in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. Championships at Cal Poly Pomona.

In the men’s division, junior Keith Copeland led Northridge to a fifth-place finish on the last day of the three-day meet. Cal State Los Angeles narrowly defeated defending champion Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 233 points to 225, to win the CCAA title.

Pomona placed third (81), Cal State Bakersfield fourth (70) and Northridge fifth (32).

The championship was the first for Cal State Los Angeles since 1977.

The CSUN women finished second behind San Luis Obispo, which won its fifth straight CCAA title with 216 points, while Northridge had 179. Pomona finished third with 120. The 179 points were the most ever by a Northridge women’s team in the CCAA meet.

CSUN women’s Coach Don Strametz couldn’t have been more pleased with his team’s performance.

‘We really had a super meet. We came through in just about every event,” he said.

Strametz received an added bonus after the meet when the CCAA coaches voted him the women’s coach of the year. John Tansley of Cal State Los Angeles was voted the men’s coach of the year.

Costello competed in five events and scored 21 1/2 points for CSUN. She began the day with her second straight CCAA title in the triple jump with a wind-aided 40-4 effort. She also ran the anchor leg on the second place 400-meter relay (47.21) team and finished fourth in the 100-meter low hurdles in a wind-aided 14.79.

She then placed fourth in the 200-meter dash with a 25.50 clocking and ran the third leg (55.6) on the mile relay team (3:55.90), which finished third.

The Northridge team of Sheila Murray, Kim Turner, Costello and Julie Middleton appeared to be headed for a Division II national qualifying time when Sharon Hanson of San Luis Obispo inadvertently knocked the baton out of Middleton’s hand with 100 meters remaining in the race.

Copeland, a junior from University High in Los Angeles, turned in three strong performances in the sprints. He placed third in the 400-meter dash in a personal best of 47.29 and then came back in the evening to win the 200 in 21.43.

In the 400, Copeland led for the first 300 meters but was unable to hold off the strong finishes of Cal State Los Angeles’ Rufus Jackson (47.10) and San Luis Obispo’s Dave Johnson (47.26).

In the 200, Copeland never gave his competitors a chance. He ran the turn well and easily held off Karwin Freeman (21.71) and Jackson (21.80), both of Cal State L.A.

Copeland ended his day with a brilliant 46.2 anchor leg in the mile relay. The Northridge team of Bill Stuck, Ken Joerger, Vaughn Kastor and Copeland ran 3:12.45 to place second to San Luis Obispo (3:12.32).

The time qualifies the Matadors for the Division II championships.

Afterward, Copeland talked about his performances, saying, “I’m very happy with the way I performed. I wanted to run faster in the 200 but my 400, and especially my mile relay leg, were very satisfying.”

While Costello and Copeland were the leading performers for the Matadors, they were by no means the only Northridge athletes to perform well.

Middleton placed second in the 100 (a wind-aided 11.99) and third in the 200 (25.07). She also ran legs on the 400- and 1600-meter relay teams. Terri Davidson placed second in the triple jump in 38-6 3/4, and Leslie Pratt ran a season best of 4:34.98 while finishing third in the 1500-meters.

Jennie Stachura placed third in the 800 meters in a personal best of 2:10.94.

In addition to her second leg in the mile relay, Turner placed third in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in a personal best of 62.5 and finished sixth in the triple jump at 36-8.

In the 3,000 meters, Nina Manriquez (9:46.16), Nancy Bowman (9:51.88) and Alex Aguirre (9:53.05) finished second, third and fourth, respectively.

Ron Lee of Cal State Bakersfield was voted the male athlete of the meet and Patrice Carpenter of San Luis Obispo the female athlete of the meet. Lee won the high jump with a Division II record of 7-6