CCAA TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS : CSUN Could Threaten Cal State L.A. at Last

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is heavily favored to win its ninth consecutive women’s title, but the Cal State Los Angeles men’s four-year reign appears to be in jeopardy as the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. track and field championships begin this morning at UC Riverside.

The decathlon and heptathlon will start at 10 and 11, respectively, with the men’s hammer throw beginning at 5 p.m. The first running event, the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, will start at 5:30.

San Luis Obispo, the defending NCAA Division II women’s champion, won the CCAA title last year with 229 points, 59 more than second-place Cal State Northridge. The Mustangs very well could top that score this season.

“No one’s going to touch them,” Northridge Coach Don Strametz said. “They’re going to be a dominant favorite at the NCAA championships. They’ll be favored to win by 50, 60 or 70 points.”

The Northridge women, led by long jumper-triple jumper Lolita Pile, sprinter Charlotte Vines and hurdler Kim Young, are expected to finish second for the sixth consecutive season. In the men’s competition, Northridge has an outside shot at the team title.

“(San Luis Obispo) is the favorite. Cal State L. A. is a team that could win it, and we’re the dark horse,” Strametz said.

Northridge, third in the past two CCAA men’s meets, should score heavily in the sprints, horizontal jumps and weight events, but the Matadors will be without distance runner Sasha Vujic, out with a fractured foot.

Pile, runner-up in the triple jump in last year’s Division II championships, will defend her conference titles in that event and the long jump, as will Laural Isles in the women’s 100 meters.

Sprinters Chris Pippins and Kevin Hendrix, long jumper-triple jumper Chris Perry, and throwers Paul Albers and Dave Youngberg are expected to lead the Northridge men.

Pippins and Hendrix should battle each other and a slew of Cal State L. A. sprinters for the 100 and 200 titles. Perry has the best mark in the CCAA--also a school record--in the long jump (25-10 1/4). Albers and Youngberg should be the top two finishers in the hammer throw and also could place high in the shotput and discus.

Northridge high jumper Ken Burke, who has not jumped competitively since rupturing his left Achilles’ tendon in last year’s Division II meet, also is expected to compete today.

Burke, a fifth-year senior, has a personal best of 7 feet 2 inches, but his return to competition has been postponed several times in the past two months because of injuries.