Northridge Track Team Set After Signing of 4

In previous years, the track and field recruiting season lasted until late July or the middle of August for Cal State Northridge Coach Don Strametz and assistant Tony Veney.

But the recruiting derby all but ended for Northridge on Tuesday when Strametz announced the signings of four athletes to the men’s team, headed by Channel Islands High hurdler Charles Brown.

“We’re looking for one more sprinter-long jumper on the men’s team,” Strametz said. “Besides that, we’re through recruiting. If anyone else wants to come here, they’re going to have to walk on.”

In addition to Brown, Northridge signed middle-distance runner Jorge Rodriguez of Fallbrook, long jumper-triple jumper Chris Perry of Pasadena Muir and hurdler Sean Wolpin of Newbury Park. Brown, Rodriguez and Perry will attend Northridge on partial athletic scholarships and Wolpin will walk on.

Morgan Bateman of Crescenta Valley and Rodney Burt of Birmingham also announced their college choices. Bateman will attend UCLA and Burt will attend Cal State Bakersfield.

Bateman, who ran 1 minute, 52.20 seconds in the 800 meters and placed third in the state championships last month, chose the Westwood campus, where he will walk on, instead of Nebraska, which offered him a partial scholarship.

Burt chose Bakersfield instead of Cal State Los Angeles, the four-time defending California Collegiate Athletic Assn. champion.

Burt, who has bests of 10.9 seconds in the 100, 21.8 in the 200 and 48.28 in the 400, will attend Bakersfield on a partial athletic scholarship.

Burt, fifth in the 400 in the 1988 City Section championships, was expected to improve on that finish this year, but he placed eighth in the final after his right hamstring cramped.

The signing of Brown, who placed third in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles (37.60) in the state meet, should bolster Northridge’s already strong hurdling corps.

Tyrone Jeffries, fifth in the 110-meter high hurdles and third in the 400 intermediates in the NCAA Division II championships in May, and redshirt Chris Fisher, fourth in the intermediates in the 1988 California Collegiate Athletic Assn. meet, will return for Northridge next season.

Rodriguez, who ran a personal best of 4:12.57 to place sixth in the 1,600 in the state championships, also should improve the Matadors’ middle-distance squad, which began the past season with high expectations but scored only four points in the CCAA championships.

Perry has bests of 23 feet, 4 inches in the long jump and 48-8 in the triple jump, according to Strametz. Wolpin has run a hand-timed 14.5 in the 110-meter high hurdles and 40.12 in the 300 intermediate hurdles.

“Brown and Rodriguez are obviously tremendous talents,” Strametz said. “We feel that they’ll both make an impact at the Division I level in 1991.”

Northridge, currently a Division II school, will move up to Division I in the fall of 1990.