Disqualifications Take Toll on Northridge Title Drive : Women: CSUN loses 24 points for an infraction in a relay and trails North Dakota by 30 points with one day left.

The points are adding up for Cal State Northridge, but not in the right category.

In the all-important category of disqualifications, Northridge leads the field two to one in the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships at State University of New York at Buffalo. In fact, if a school were to have only the 44 points CSUN has lost in the past three days, it would be in 15th place in the team standings.

The latest disqualification came midway through the first leg of the 400-yard medley relay Friday. Mara Morgan, swimming the backstroke, was called for breaking the vertical plane of her shoulders before touching the wall on a turn.

At least that’s the way Matt Dembrow, the lane judge, saw it.

Pete Accardy, CSUN’s coach, saw it differently.

“She wasn’t even close to illegal. She has a great turn,” Accardy said between informal barbs at various meet officials. “I was looking right at her and she did not cross over. I couldn’t figure out what he called. I figured she must have missed the wall.”

Morgan said that she has made the mistake before.

“Last time, I was about 11 (years old),” she said. “I don’t think any of my turns were illegal (Friday).”

Dembrow declined comment on his call, funneling questions to John Pat Bourassa, the head official. For his part, Bourassa chose to pull out a rule book and read the description of the alleged violation.

Northridge finished the race and placed seventh, which would have been worth 22 points. But CSUN would have earned the same 22 points just by finishing without disqualification.

The third-place Lady Matadors trail front-running North Dakota by 30 points going into today’s final five events.

CSUN lost a potential first-place finish--worth 20 points--when sprint specialist Toady Kimble was disqualified Wednesday for a false start in the 50-yard freestyle preliminaries.

Oakland (Mich.), which lost 38 points when Dembrow disqualified its 200-yard medley relay team Wednesday for the same infraction as Morgan, is second with 304 points.

“This meet has become a joke,” Accardy said, still fuming more than 30 minutes after the call. “The team that’s leading the meet (North Dakota) is ahead (because of) DQs. It takes away from the meet.”

It has not, however, ruined CSUN’s chances to win a fourth consecutive women’s team championship.

Kimble is the defending champion in today’s first event, the 100-yard freestyle. Morgan is one of the favorites in the 200-yard backstroke.

Accardy can only hope that Morgan swims aggressively on the turns.

“We can still win this thing if (the disqualification) hasn’t shattered her completely,” Accardy said. “We need her.”

Northridge is also a team in need of a diver or two. CSUN lists Dennis Taylor as its diving coach, but the Lady Matadors don’t have a competitor in either the one- or three-meter events.

North Dakota, the runner-up to CSUN last year, has picked up 50 points in diving. Oakland has 39.

Northridge did most of its damage Friday in the 400-yard individual medley.

Morgan, a freshman from Livermore, Calif., won the race in 4:29.39, a personal best. Lisa Dial, a senior, was third in 4:31.31 and junior Carole Eisele was sixth in 4:33.67, giving CSUN 50 points in the event.

Morgan’s effort was workman-like--not pretty, but effective.

“I still don’t feel fast in the water,” said Morgan, who has reached the finals in all three of her individual events. “I feel real sore. I feel like I’m plowing through the water and using a lot of energy.”

Morgan was third after the butterfly, took over the lead in the backstroke, held on in her worst segment--the breaststroke--then held off Oakland’s Lyn Schermer in the freestyle.

Schermer, winner of the 200-yard individual medley, was second in 4:30.60.

Northridge, which temporarily took over the team lead after Tina Dodson’s third-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly (57.56), stretched its advantage to 38 points after the individual medley.

But the disqualification, coupled with a 29-point effort in diving by North Dakota--Katie Stephens was seventh, Mary Houle eighth and Terri Bartl 11th--quickly turned the margin around.