NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships : CSUN’s Arreola Wins First National Title

Darcy Arreola of Cal State Northridge won a national title in the 3,000 meters here Friday to pace the Matadors’ third-day effort in the NCAA Division II track and field championships under stormy West Texas skies.

Competition was delayed from 3:30 until 7 p.m. when a succession of thunderstorms moved through the area, dumping nearly an inch of rain and flooding the facility.

Six-time defending national champion Abilene Christian University leads the men’s team competition with 52 points, followed by host Angelo State with 34. St. Augustine’s College, of Raleigh, N.C., is third with 26 points and Northridge is fourth with 22. Cal State Los Angeles is seventh with 16 points.

In the women’s division, three-time defending national champion Abilene Christian holds a 45-37 lead over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo after nine events. Northridge is in eighth place with 20 points.

“The men have already scored more points this year than they did last year,” CSUN Coach Don Strametz said.

And while the Northridge women won’t score as well as they did a year ago in Cape Girardeau, Mo., they did get Arreola’s national title.

“The wind was blowing so hard that she had to forget about going for a record and just worked on the win,” Strametz said.

Arreola’s time of 9:42.03 established a stadium record, bettering the old mark of 9:45.87 set by Liz Lynch of Ricks Community College during the National Junior College Championships in 1983.

Arreola, honored five times as an All-American in track and cross-country, defeated Gitte Karlshoj of Seattle Pacific for her national title.

Arreola will go after her second national title in the 1,500 meters today, an event in which she placed second nationally a year ago. She is also eligible to run in the NCAA Division I national championships in Eugene, Ore., next month.

In the men’s division, Northridge received a third-place finish from Vaughan Kastor, who ran 1:50.96 in the 800.

“I think Vaughan ran really well and with 200 meters to go he was in perfect position,” said CSUN assistant coach Tony Veney, a top 800-meter runner at UCLA more than a decade ago.

Both Veney and Strametz said that they felt Kastor made his move too late in the race.

The Matadors also received points from Kevin Hendrix’ fifth-place finish in the 200 meters and Tyrone Jeffries’ sixth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles.

Hendrix’ time of 21.03 was a lifetime best and equaled second-fastest in school history. Jeffries’ 51.73 was a personal best and moves him to third on the all-time school list.

“Tyrone took it out the way we talked about it,” Veney said, “but he was soft on the turn hurdles and kind of turned it off. By the time he tried to turn it on again, the field was away from him.”

Both Jeffries and Hendrix are on Northridge’s 1,600-meter relay team that will run in the final event of the championships.

The surprise of Friday’s competition came when CSUN’s David Swanson cleared 7-0 to finish sixth in the high jump and equal his personal best.

“That was a totally unexpected finish,” Strametz said.

The Northridge women received a fifth-place finish from Robin Stinson in the 400 hurdles and the 400-meter relay team finished sixth in 46.82 seconds.

“Hey, that’s not bad. We came in with the eighth-fastest time and finished sixth,” Veney said.

Action continues this morning, but the first event involving a Northridge athlete won’t start until the evening half of the program when Jeffries competes in the 110-meter high hurdles.