Bonus Events Possible for Northridge

Lolita Pile, Laural Isles and Lisa Gill of Cal State Northridge qualified for the NCAA Division II track and field championships in one event each, but they may compete in a second one before the three-day meet ends on Saturday night.

For a variety of reasons--poor weather in much of the country being the chief culprit--only two women sprinters met the Division II championship standard of 24.10 in the 200, and only three met the 100-meter low hurdles standard of 14.25.

In an effort to fill out the fields to a minimum of five athletes in those two events, qualifying races will be held during the meet among athletes who have qualified in at least one other event.

So Isles, who qualified in the 100, and Pile (triple jump) might run in the 200 meters and Gill (heptathlon) might compete in the 100 hurdles.

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet,” Northridge Coach Don Strametz said. “But there is a good chance that they’ll run in those events.”

Strametz also has the option of putting together a men’s 1,600-meter relay team--there were only four entries in that event--but he said he didn’t think he would.

“We just don’t have the personnel here to run a good 1,600,” Strametz said.

The rest of Northridge’s entries are more concrete.

Darcy Arreola will attempt to defend her titles in the 1,500 and 3,000. She will not attempt a distance triple--as Strametz had proposed several weeks ago--because she intends to run the 1,500 at next week’s Division I championships in Provo, Utah.

“I think she could have won three events,” Strametz said. “But it wasn’t worth it . . . I don’t want her too tired for next week.”

The top two finishers in each event at the Division II meet--who are juniors or seniors--are eligible to compete in the Division I meet if they have met Division I standards.

Freshmen and sophomores are not eligible because Division I schools passed a rule two years ago that will phase out Division II athletes running in the Division I meet.

Arreola, a junior, has met Division I standards in both the 1,500 and 3,000, and Pile, another junior, has met the standard in the triple jump.

The school record-holder in the event (42 feet), Pile will attempt to improve upon her eight-place finish of 1987 and her sixth-place effort of 1988.

Tyrone Jeffries and Walt Stewart will lead the Northridge men.

Jeffries will run in the 110 high hurdles and the 400 intermediate hurdles as well as a leg on the 400 relay.

Stewart, who cleared a personal best of 7 feet, 2 1/2 inches in the high jump at Cal State Los Angeles on Saturday, will compete in that event on Friday.

Northridge juniors Paul Albers and Dan Youngberg will compete in the finals of the men’s hammer throw today, and Arreola will run in a qualifying heat of the 1,500.