College Track : Focus of CSUN’s Noel Helps Him to a Record

After spending the formative years of his athletic career dividing time between track and soccer, Garrett Noel was forced to choose between the two when he enrolled at Cal State Northridge last September.

Although he had excelled in both sports at the age-group and high school level, the Crespi graduate knew that to reach his potential in one, he had to give up the other.

He chose track--or more specifically--field, and he has not regretted the decision.

“This is what I love doing,” Noel, a 6-foot-1, 187-pound freshman, said after winning the javelin event at an invitational meet at CSUN on Saturday. “I’ve been doing it since I was 12 and it’s what I do best.”

Noel threw a personal-best 205 feet, 4 inches to set a CSUN freshman record with the newly modified javelin and missed qualifying for the NCAA Division II championships by only eight inches.

Javier Irizarry set the Northridge freshman record with the old javelin in 1982, throwing 222-6, but his mark came with an implement that was aerodynamically superior than the new one, which has been used since 1986.

But Noel appears to be adjusting to the new javelin just fine.

“My coach thinks I’m capable of throwing 220 this year,” he said. “And I don’t see why I can’t.”

Noel’s teammate, Paul Albers, did not win Saturday, but he did qualify for the Division II championships in the hammer throw with a 174-2 toss. He placed second in the competition.

Albers, a junior from Sierra College, moved to ninth on the all-time Northridge list.

Other Northridge winners in a meet lacking an abundance of high-quality marks were Walt Stewart in the high jump, Tyrone Jeffries in the 400 meters and Lolita Pile in the women’s triple jump.

Stewart, a former standout at Notre Dame, jumped 6-11 1/2, Jeffries won the 400 in 49.36 seconds and Pile leaped 38-4 1/2 in the triple jump. Jeffries also placed second in the first heat of the 200 in 22.19.

In another meet, at Occidental College, Chris Beard, won the hammer throw with a personal best of 198-10. Beard placed second in the 1988 NCAA Division II championships as an Occidental senior.