Arreola Turns Tables on Her Track Nemesis

Darcy Arreola had waited a year for this moment. Ever since last year’s NCAA Division II track and field championships, when she lost twice to Teena Colebrook of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Arreola had been plotting her revenge.

And Saturday evening, on the track at Angelo State University’s Multipurpose Sports Complex, the Cal State Northridge sophomore put her plan into action, running away from Colebrook to win the 1,500 meters and her second national title in as many days.

“Darcy did everything exactly like she was supposed to do,” Northridge Coach Don Strametz said. “We felt the only way to beat her was to take it out.”

Arreola traveled 800 meters in a swift two minutes, 18 seconds, which proved to be fast enough to drop Colebrook, a British import who won the 800 and 1,500 titles last spring.

“About the third lap was when I was really thinking about last year the most, but I looked and she wasn’t there,” Arreola said. “That’s when I knew I had her.”

Arreola finished in a stadium-record 4:20.61 seconds. She broke the stadium record Friday in winning the 3,000-meter title. Her two victories accounted for 20 of CSUN’s 29 points as the Lady Matadors finished ninth in the women’s scoring. The men’s team also placed ninth, scoring 38 points. Abilene Christian University swept both team titles.

For Abilene’s men, it was the seventh consecutive title and the final one for Coach Don Hood, who was fired Monday after a series of incidents involving the violation of NCAA and Lone Star Conference rules in connection with the recruiting of athletes with questionable eligibility. The team dedicated the meet to its coach and won it with 112 points.

Saint Augustine’s College, N. C., finished second with 75 points and Angelo State was third with 70 1/2. Abilene’s women won their fourth title in a row, scoring 109 1/2 points. Alabama A&M; placed second with 72 points and Hampton, Va., placed third with 65. Cal Poly Pomona was fourth with 59 1/2 points and Cal Poly SLO was fifth with 58 points.

Though Northridge was never in the title hunt in either division, Strametz was far from disappointed.

“I’m extremely happy with the effort and the results,” he said. “We have a very, very young team and we hope to be back at the nationals next year.

“One of our goals at the start of the year was to finish in the top 10 nationally. We also earned 23 All-American honors, which is our highest total ever.”

Arreola was the only CSUN national champion, but Lolita Pile turned in a strong effort to finish fourth in the triple jump with a mark of 41 feet, 5 inches. Pile, who has been invited to compete in The Athletics Congress championships in Florida, is also hoping to win a berth on the U. S. Olympic team. While the triple jump is not an official Olympic event, it will be contested as an exhibition this September in Seoul.

Tyrone Jeffries, a sophomore, turned in the top CSUN men’s performance of the day, finishing fifth in the 110-meter high hurdles in 14.04 seconds. He then came back in the last event of the meet, the 1,600-meter relay, to help the Matadors finish sixth in 3:12.00.