Division II Track : Assisted by Foreign Athletes, Abilene Christian Gets Sweep

Division II track and field used to be at a level where Jack and Jill American, the better-than-average-but-not-so-great athlete, could compete and even thrive.

Those days are long gone, however, at least if the competition at this week’s NCAA Division II track and field championships at Cal State Los Angeles is any indication.

No less than 11 of the 36 individual championships at the four-day meet were won by foreign athletes.

Among the winners on the meet’s final day were Egyptian Olympian Ahmed Shata of Abilene Christian, who won the shotput with a Division II record of 63-10; Jamaican Olympian Ian Morris of Abilene Christian, who won the 400 in a meet-record 45.10; Kenyan Olympian Charles Cheruiyot of Mount St. Mary’s College, who won the 5,000 in a meet-record 13:58.48; and Norwegian Olympian Bente Moe of Seattle Pacific, who won the women’s 5,000 in 16:31.49.

Add to that list Stan Oporski of Cal State Los Angeles, the winner in the triple jump at 53-8. He defected from Poland after an international meet in Italy three years ago.

And you thought the ‘N’ in NCAA meant national? Perhaps it should have been an ‘I’ for international in honor of the mass of English-as-a-second-language students on the track.

Abilene Christian scored in all but four events to win the men’s title for the fifth straight season. The Wildcats had 142 points to easily outdistance Southeast Missouri with 60 and Cal State Los Angeles with 59.

The Abilene Christian women’s team won its second consecutive title by a 112-93.5 margin over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Ann Foster of Abilene Christian set a Division II record Saturday in the triple jump at 42-0, while Cal Poly SLO got wins from Deena Bernstein in the javelin at 158-3, Gladees Prieur in the 1,500 in 4:18.98 and Patrice Carpenter in the 400 at 52.96.

Dannette Young of Alabama A&M; set a Division II record of 11.31 in the 100 meters, while Patricia Ann Davis of St. Augustine’s won the 100-meter hurdles in a meet-record time of 13.20.

Notes

Sgt. Prince Green of the Cal State Los Angeles campus police said Saturday that it appears no criminal charges will be filed stemming from the death of sportswriter Phil Klusman of the Bakersfield Californian. Klusman died Friday afternoon, 1 1/2 hours after being struck by a hammer that was thrown out of bounds during practice by Ricky Vaughn of Angelo State University. A moment of silence was observed for Klusman at Saturday’s meet. Several members of the Cal State Bakersfield team wore black bands on their uniforms. Klusman covered Bakersfield college sports teams for 20 years. Cal State L.A. has not released a statement regarding the incident, but Dennis Keihn, the school’s athletic director, said he met with police officials Saturday morning and a report that will be submitted to the district attorney’s office was near completion.