CSUN Fares Well at Meet Marred by Athlete’s Death

Cal State Northridge runners Darcy Arreola, Tina Cheney and Jennie Stachura qualified Thursday in the 1,500 meter-run on the second day of the NCAA Division II track championships that were marred by the death of Paul Bryan of California College of Pennsylvania.

Bryan, a native of Jamaica, collapsed after qualifying in his 1,500 heat and later was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Thursday’s meet at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau was staged in 99-degree heat with high humidity.

Arreola, the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. champion in the 800 and 1,500, placed third in heat 2 with a 4:38.64 clocking. Cheney placed third (4:35.14) and Stachura placed fourth (4:35.2) in the first heat.

Arreola and Stachura will run in the final of the women’s 800 meters today.

CSUN’s Will James also qualified for the men’s 1,500 final. The CCAA champion placed fifth in his heat to qualify for Saturday’s final. The CSUN junior, who has run 3:46.31, clocked 3:48.

Although hurdler Tyrone Jeffries was eliminated in the 110-meter high hurdles (14.68) on Thursday, he qualified for today’s final of the 400 intermediate hurdles with a 52.71 effort on Wednesday.

In other events Wednesday, the CSUN 4 x 100 relay team ran a season-best of 40.88 but failed to qualify for the final.

CSUN Coach Don Strametz was pleased with his athletes’ performances thus far.

“We’ve done well, especially when you consider the conditions,” he said. “This is a great experience for our freshmen. It will really help them next year.”

In other finals today, CCAA champion Gary Jackson will attempt to improve upon last year’s fourth-place finish in the long jump and Penny Franklin will compete in the women’s long jump.

Nancy Bowman will run in the 3,000 meters.