Northridge Makes Most of a Lost Day : Track: UCLA dominates the triangular meet but sprinter Kevin Hendrix gives a reassuring performance for the Matadors.

Neither time was a personal best and neither effort qualified Kevin Hendrix of Cal State Northridge for the NCAA Division II track and field championships in May. But Northridge Coach Don Strametz figured that Hendrix’s sprint victories in a triangular meet against Azusa Pacific and UCLA at Drake Stadium on Saturday were worth far more than their statistical value.

Hendrix won the 100 meters in 10.61 seconds and the 200 in 21.46 in a meet dominated by UCLA, the three-time defending Pacific 10 Conference champion.

The Bruins scored 113 points, followed by Northridge (39) and Azusa Pacific (36).

UCLA, powered by Angela Burnham’s victories in the 200 (24.15) and 400 (55.23), also won the women’s quadrangular meet, scoring 72 points. Cal finished second with 55, followed by Northridge (38) and Azusa Pacific (9).

“I saw a lot of positive things out there,” Strametz said. “We had some real confidence-building performances.”

No performance bolstered a Northridge athlete’s psyche more than Hendrix’s.

Hendrix, the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. champion in the 200 and 400 as a sophomore in 1988, was academically ineligible last season. And he has struggled so far this year.

“He’s back,” Strametz said. “Today, he looked like the sprinter he was two years ago.”

Although Hendrix’s efforts weren’t particularly fast, he has plenty of time to improve before the CCAA meet in May.

Competing without their best 800 runner (freshman Erick McBride) and top javelin thrower (sophomore Garrett Noel), both sidelined because of injuries, the Matadors won only three events in the men’s meet.

Sasha Vujic posted the other victory, swooping past Victor Santamaria of UCLA with 200 meters left to win the men’s two-mile run in 9 minutes 5.4 seconds.

Vujic ran his second mile in 4:24.4 after a slowish first mile (4:41.0).

The Northridge women also were short-handed, missing injured Division II All-Americans Laural Isles (100) and Lisa Gill (heptathlon), but they still won three events and had a relay team qualify for the Division II meet.

Lolita Pile won the triple jump at 40 feet 7 inches, Charlotte Vines took the 100 in 12.22, and Noreen Flynn leaped 5-4 to win the high jump.

The Lady Matadors’ 400-meter relay team of Shawnette Sapp, Pile, Kim Young and Vines did not win, but the quartet’s third-place effort of 46.69 bettered the Division II qualifying standard.

Burnham, who won five state titles during her career at Rio Mesa High in Oxnard, was the most-watched performer at Saturday’s meet, but two other former local standouts also won events.

UCLA’s John Knight, formerly of Oak Park, won the hammer throw at 206-11, and Bruin Jay Bettinger, a 1988 graduate of Chatsworth, took the pole vault at 17-0.