CSUN Opens Cross-Country Season at UCLA

The Cal State Northridge men’s cross-country team officially begins the season at the UCLA Invitational in Westwood this afternoon. However, the Matadors will not be at full strength until next week’s UC Riverside Invitational.

Don Strametz, beginning his 10th season as CSUN’s coach, will use today’s meet to inspect the racing form of two promising freshmen: Jeff Gilkey from Arroyo High in El Monte and Sasha Vujic from Burroughs. Gilkey, the second man on Arroyo’s state Division I cross-country championship team, placed sixth in the state meet and ran 9 minutes, 3.39 seconds in the 3,200 meters during the track season.

Vujic placed eighth in the 1987 Southern Section 3-A Division cross-country championships and and ran 9:14.74 in the 3,200.

Strametz expects senior Reggie Dechard to be the only Northridge runner in today’s meet who competed in last year’s NCAA Division II championships in Evansville, Ind.

Sophomore George Castro, who earned All-American honors with his 26th-place finish in Evansville and led the Matadors to an eighth-place finish, will not race until next week. Teammate Derik Vett, a junior who placed 55th at the NCAA championships, might redshirt this season because of a hip injury.

“I’m not expecting anything real big from this meet,” Strametz said. “It’s just a chance for some of the guys to get a meet under their belts. Next week will be our first serious meet.”